Everything to Know About the Sales Cadence
Make time on your side to make sales.
A key component of sales is sales cadence.
Salespeople will create journeys to take their leads on as they seek to turn them into customers. They use the time to teach them about the product, invite them to ask questions, and wonder if they are indeed a good fit.
It has been proven extensively that it typically takes more than a one-time approach for someone to actually buy something. Just like with advertising, it pays to remind your targets about your existence multiple times.
And thus, the sales cadence was born.
Salespeople will create journeys to take their leads on as they seek to turn them into customers. They use the time to teach them about the product, invite them to ask questions, and wonder if they are indeed a good fit.
It has been proven extensively that it typically takes more than a one-time approach for someone to actually buy something. Just like with advertising, it pays to remind your targets about your existence multiple times.
And thus, the sales cadence was born.
What Is a Sales Cadence?
A sales prospecting cadence is the different outreach steps and methods a salesperson uses to form a connection with prospects that, if done correctly, will turn them into paying customers. These instances are sometimes called touchpoints. It's the meat and potatoes of the outbound lead generation process, where salespeople, especially sales development representatives, can really flex their creative and research muscles to arrive at optimal results.
The best sales cadences will be a mixture of approaches and they will vary depending on the type of customer. A B2C sales cadence, while similar, would vary from a B2B sales cadence, as they would differ if the lead came from outbound or inbound tactics.
Generally speaking, you want to make sure you are making a connection with your lead that results in turning them into a real prospect. And your cadence should reflect that. You can personalize your approach to your prospecting cadence by having it be made up of anything from calls, to email, to social media or video messaging - just to name a few.
Do make sure your audience would respond to whatever method you are using, however.
What we mean by this is that a younger target audience may, for example, prefer to get information about your product or services via SMS as opposed to a call, while an older target audience may prefer a call. This is a very basic example, but it is the kind of thing to keep in mind when creating your cadence, just as you keep it in mind when creating your ideal customer profile.
Sales cadence best practices require you to keep the ideal customer profile in mind when you are creating your steps. Some industries do not exist as visibly on LinkedIn, for instance, but are more likely to respond favorably to a phone call. Others may not be used to receiving a video message but will respond to an email. Mixing them up and being aware of what works well and what doesn't is the job of your sales team, and the best salespeople are aware of this and will adjust their efforts accordingly.
In fact, your SDRs and BDRs are the ones who are actually on the ground receiving constant feedback on their cadences, and if you give them enough independence and wiggle room, their cadences will change over time to become the best versions of themselves.
The best sales cadences will be a mixture of approaches and they will vary depending on the type of customer. A B2C sales cadence, while similar, would vary from a B2B sales cadence, as they would differ if the lead came from outbound or inbound tactics.
Generally speaking, you want to make sure you are making a connection with your lead that results in turning them into a real prospect. And your cadence should reflect that. You can personalize your approach to your prospecting cadence by having it be made up of anything from calls, to email, to social media or video messaging - just to name a few.
Do make sure your audience would respond to whatever method you are using, however.
What we mean by this is that a younger target audience may, for example, prefer to get information about your product or services via SMS as opposed to a call, while an older target audience may prefer a call. This is a very basic example, but it is the kind of thing to keep in mind when creating your cadence, just as you keep it in mind when creating your ideal customer profile.
Sales cadence best practices require you to keep the ideal customer profile in mind when you are creating your steps. Some industries do not exist as visibly on LinkedIn, for instance, but are more likely to respond favorably to a phone call. Others may not be used to receiving a video message but will respond to an email. Mixing them up and being aware of what works well and what doesn't is the job of your sales team, and the best salespeople are aware of this and will adjust their efforts accordingly.
In fact, your SDRs and BDRs are the ones who are actually on the ground receiving constant feedback on their cadences, and if you give them enough independence and wiggle room, their cadences will change over time to become the best versions of themselves.
Sales Cadence Examples
The most common sales cadence is the email sales cadence.
As you can probably guess, the basis of your sales cadence in this case is an email sequence. Email sequences are a set of several emails, a good initial number is three but some salespeople have been known to create a lot more.
In the first email, you want to offer a brief introduction about the product or service you sell and name yourself and your title. Yes, they will see it in the signature, but by introducing yourself in this manner you become associated with your company. They know who you are now.
A follow-up email would include additional information that was not revealed in the introduction email. You could set it up to run 2-3 days after using a sales tool. As your first email was a very brief introduction of your product or service, this follow-up could include additional features that you were unable to cover or explain in your first outreach attempt.
For example, if you sell a time tracking application, in your first email you introduce it and yourself, and in your second email you could mention it also has a shared scheduling option so that the entire team can see when each person is busy.
If you provide all this information in your first email, it can be heavy and confusing to the reader, so splitting it up is best.
In your third email, you want to be as direct and clear as in your first one, but this could also be a good time to try to offer something in exchange - a lead magnet. Perhaps the time tracking application can offer a free trial period or a discount if companies sign up for two months. And you could offer it in this third instance to arrive at a sale or meeting - you want your call-to-action (CTA) to be clear and the same throughout all instances.
While an SDR email cadence is the most basic form of a sales cadence today, you can also apply this to other methods. Perhaps a series of calls or LinkedIn actions.
On LinkedIn you can get very specific. You can start with a profile visit, then do another one, then hit follow, start interacting with posts that the prospect likes or comments on, send a connection request with or without a message, and then send a direct message with a video. If you're more focused on social selling - creating your own posts to draw people in - seeing prospects like or comment on them before connecting with them to try to make the pitch is also a possibility.
And while we are focusing on B2B with LinkedIn, this can also be applied to other forms of social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok. Social selling is essentially making friends. Go about it like how you would make a friend on any of these platforms.
As you can probably guess, the basis of your sales cadence in this case is an email sequence. Email sequences are a set of several emails, a good initial number is three but some salespeople have been known to create a lot more.
In the first email, you want to offer a brief introduction about the product or service you sell and name yourself and your title. Yes, they will see it in the signature, but by introducing yourself in this manner you become associated with your company. They know who you are now.
A follow-up email would include additional information that was not revealed in the introduction email. You could set it up to run 2-3 days after using a sales tool. As your first email was a very brief introduction of your product or service, this follow-up could include additional features that you were unable to cover or explain in your first outreach attempt.
For example, if you sell a time tracking application, in your first email you introduce it and yourself, and in your second email you could mention it also has a shared scheduling option so that the entire team can see when each person is busy.
If you provide all this information in your first email, it can be heavy and confusing to the reader, so splitting it up is best.
In your third email, you want to be as direct and clear as in your first one, but this could also be a good time to try to offer something in exchange - a lead magnet. Perhaps the time tracking application can offer a free trial period or a discount if companies sign up for two months. And you could offer it in this third instance to arrive at a sale or meeting - you want your call-to-action (CTA) to be clear and the same throughout all instances.
While an SDR email cadence is the most basic form of a sales cadence today, you can also apply this to other methods. Perhaps a series of calls or LinkedIn actions.
On LinkedIn you can get very specific. You can start with a profile visit, then do another one, then hit follow, start interacting with posts that the prospect likes or comments on, send a connection request with or without a message, and then send a direct message with a video. If you're more focused on social selling - creating your own posts to draw people in - seeing prospects like or comment on them before connecting with them to try to make the pitch is also a possibility.
And while we are focusing on B2B with LinkedIn, this can also be applied to other forms of social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or even TikTok. Social selling is essentially making friends. Go about it like how you would make a friend on any of these platforms.
How to Create a Sales Cadence
Now that we've talked about the types of sales cadences, it's time to discuss how we would go about creating one here at SalesPipe. Sales cadences are a key component of our day-to-day. We like to think we have a decent level of expertise.
The first thing to do, once you know your product and marketing well, and once you've set your customer profile, is to write that first email. You want to make sure you have a series of sales cadence templates you can use or work off of now or in the future.
With the timekeeping application example mentioned above, we'd create our first series of three emails.
First, we want a clever, fun subject line. We want to use the lead's name, as it draws their attention as well. And then we want to respect what was mentioned previously about keeping each email clear and to the point. Around these emails, we will craft additional actions as part of the sales cadence for the salesperson to do.
A timekeeping application is useful in a variety of fields. It is likely that we will be able to find our prospects on LinkedIn, so this is where we will have additional actions.
Furthermore, let's say our customer profile is also focusing on a startup founders demographic that is constantly on the go and does not have time to answer an unplanned call. We want to avoid the phone call in this instance, but we could add a video.
Our cadence could look something like this:
First email
Subject: {{first_name}}, running out of time?
Hi {{first_name}},
Do you often wonder where the time for your projects went? And why you dedicate so much time to tasks that seem like they should not take as long?
I'm Flor, Sales Lead at TimeKeepers, and I'm here to answer these questions for you.
We are ready to help you and your team keep track of how much time you really spend on your projects. This will help you reorganize and reprioritize your tasks for, as they say, time is money.
Want to learn a bit more - what's your availability for the rest of this week?
Best,
LinkedIn action: Profile Visit and Follow
Second email
{{first_name}},
I was gazing at the calendar on my wall today and thought of you!
Why, you might ask?
Well, it's not just because my deadline is growing closer, but because I realized I forgot to inform you about our team scheduler feature here at TimeKeepers.
Not only do we help you and your team keep track of your time so that you can reorganize your tasks, but we also help you keep each other updated as to your availability throughout the day. Two birds, one stone.
How do the next two weeks look for a quick call?
Cheers,
LinkedIn action: Like or Comment on Last Post
Third email
{{first_name}},
Hello, it's me!
I was wondering if after all these emails you'd like to meet - to go over everything - they say time should not be wasted, so we won't let it.
(Yes, I was listening to Adele!)
And I wanted to let you know that here at TimeKeepers we currently have a 20% discount for the first two months of our services for any new clients signing up.
Do you have some time for a quick chat before the end of the month?
Best,
LinkedIn action: Connection or InMail
You connect if you get to the end of the cadence and then can try for a social sell, starting out an entirely new, LinkedIn-based cadence. Or you can send an InMail or a connection request with your sales message, or a video message link directly. That would be up to each individual and what works best for them.
The first thing to do, once you know your product and marketing well, and once you've set your customer profile, is to write that first email. You want to make sure you have a series of sales cadence templates you can use or work off of now or in the future.
With the timekeeping application example mentioned above, we'd create our first series of three emails.
First, we want a clever, fun subject line. We want to use the lead's name, as it draws their attention as well. And then we want to respect what was mentioned previously about keeping each email clear and to the point. Around these emails, we will craft additional actions as part of the sales cadence for the salesperson to do.
A timekeeping application is useful in a variety of fields. It is likely that we will be able to find our prospects on LinkedIn, so this is where we will have additional actions.
Furthermore, let's say our customer profile is also focusing on a startup founders demographic that is constantly on the go and does not have time to answer an unplanned call. We want to avoid the phone call in this instance, but we could add a video.
Our cadence could look something like this:
First email
Subject: {{first_name}}, running out of time?
Hi {{first_name}},
Do you often wonder where the time for your projects went? And why you dedicate so much time to tasks that seem like they should not take as long?
I'm Flor, Sales Lead at TimeKeepers, and I'm here to answer these questions for you.
We are ready to help you and your team keep track of how much time you really spend on your projects. This will help you reorganize and reprioritize your tasks for, as they say, time is money.
Want to learn a bit more - what's your availability for the rest of this week?
Best,
LinkedIn action: Profile Visit and Follow
Second email
{{first_name}},
I was gazing at the calendar on my wall today and thought of you!
Why, you might ask?
Well, it's not just because my deadline is growing closer, but because I realized I forgot to inform you about our team scheduler feature here at TimeKeepers.
Not only do we help you and your team keep track of your time so that you can reorganize your tasks, but we also help you keep each other updated as to your availability throughout the day. Two birds, one stone.
How do the next two weeks look for a quick call?
Cheers,
LinkedIn action: Like or Comment on Last Post
Third email
{{first_name}},
Hello, it's me!
I was wondering if after all these emails you'd like to meet - to go over everything - they say time should not be wasted, so we won't let it.
(Yes, I was listening to Adele!)
And I wanted to let you know that here at TimeKeepers we currently have a 20% discount for the first two months of our services for any new clients signing up.
Do you have some time for a quick chat before the end of the month?
Best,
LinkedIn action: Connection or InMail
You connect if you get to the end of the cadence and then can try for a social sell, starting out an entirely new, LinkedIn-based cadence. Or you can send an InMail or a connection request with your sales message, or a video message link directly. That would be up to each individual and what works best for them.
Conclusion
The sales cadence is the ultimate tool in sales - whether you're doing it old school via phone or with influencers on TikTok. If you wield it well, you are sure to constantly have revenue and customers coming in.
You just have to make sure you understand your audience, their interests, what works, and where they are. Then use all of this information to sell to them in the way that appeals most. With some creativity and insight, you've got this in the bag.
At SalesPipe, we are experts on the sales cadence and would love to help you expand your customer base - get in touch with us to find out more.
You just have to make sure you understand your audience, their interests, what works, and where they are. Then use all of this information to sell to them in the way that appeals most. With some creativity and insight, you've got this in the bag.
At SalesPipe, we are experts on the sales cadence and would love to help you expand your customer base - get in touch with us to find out more.
Post by Flor Fustinoni.
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