A sales cadence is a structured schedule of outreach touchpoints spread across a defined period. It determines how many times you contact a prospect, through which channels, and at what intervals before moving on.
The word "cadence" refers to the rhythm of outreach. Without one, salespeople either give up too early (one email and done) or follow up inconsistently. A defined cadence makes the process repeatable and measurable.
What a sales cadence looks like
A typical outbound cadence for a B2B SaaS deal might run over 14 days:
- Day 1: Personalised email
- Day 3: LinkedIn connection request
- Day 5: Follow-up email referencing the first
- Day 7: LinkedIn message if connected
- Day 10: Final email with a clear close or opt-out
Each step has a specific channel, timing, and purpose. The cadence stops when a prospect replies, positively or negatively, or when all steps are complete.
Why cadence structure matters
Most replies in cold outreach don't come from the first email. Research consistently shows that 2-5 follow-ups significantly increase response rates. The challenge is doing this systematically across hundreds of prospects without it becoming manual work.
A defined cadence also tells you what's working. If step 3 (first follow-up) consistently gets more replies than step 1 (first email), that tells you something about timing or messaging that a single-touch approach would never surface.
Single-channel vs multi-channel cadences
A single-channel cadence uses only email or only LinkedIn. A multi-channel cadence combines both, and potentially WhatsApp for markets where that's the primary business communication channel (India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Middle East).
Multi-channel cadences generally outperform single-channel because prospects encounter your outreach in different contexts. Someone who ignores an email may respond to a LinkedIn message from the same person a few days later.
How toflow.ai handles sales cadences
toflow.ai's Outreach Sequences builds multi-channel cadences with email, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp nodes in a single workflow. Timezone-aware scheduling sends each step during the prospect's working hours. The Follow-up Agent monitors engagement signals across channels and decides timing automatically, so follow-ups go out when a prospect is most likely to be active rather than on a fixed-day schedule.
You can also describe the cadence structure you want to Claude or ChatGPT connected to toflow.ai, and it will build and configure the sequence in your workspace.