Sales Cadence: A 19-Day Sequence, Explained Step by Step

A sales cadence is the planned order and timing of the contacts you make with one prospect, across channels, until they reply or the plan ends. The one in this guide has six steps over 19 working days. A posted letter arrives on day 1, emails follow on days 4, 7 and 11, and LinkedIn on days 15 and 19.

It is the sequence your Outbound Machine runs in Leadodo. The days and the channels come from the product. The job we give each step and the reason for its day are our reading, and you can copy the plan by hand.

What is a sales cadence?

A sales cadence is a schedule of contact attempts for one prospect. It fixes three things in advance, which are the channels, the order and the gaps between steps.

Many people say sales sequence for the same thing. Where a line is drawn, the cadence is the rhythm and the sequence is the list of steps. This guide uses both words for one plan.

The reason to have one is that follow-up left to memory gets skipped. In a 2019 study of 12 million outreach emails by Backlinko and Pitchbox, one follow-up brought 65.8% more replies than a single email (Backlinko). That study covered outreach of all kinds, link requests included. The direction is what matters here. A second contact is where many replies come from, and a cadence makes sure it is sent.

What does the 19-day sales cadence look like?

It has six steps on three channels, with gaps of 3, 3, 4, 4 and 4 working days. Day 1 is the day the letter arrives, and weekends are not counted.

Two rules sit on top of the table. The sequence stops for a business the moment it replies. And the agency sends under its own name.

Review is the agency's choice. You can review every letter and message before it goes, review a sample such as the first 100, or let your Outbound Machine send without review.

Why does each step sit where it does?

Each position answers one question. What does the owner need next, and which channel does that job best?

Day 1, the letter

The first job is to be noticed, and it is the hardest one. So it goes to a less crowded channel. In the ANA's Response Rate Report 2021, 38% of the marketers surveyed used direct mail and 82% used email (ANA). That survey spans several industries, so take it as direction.

A letter also has room. It can hold the finding, what the finding costs the owner and who you are. Every later step can then be short. Through Leadodo, a posted letter in the US costs about 86 cents, for one page in black and white, sent First Class. That covers printing, postage and the envelope. Our guide to why the letter goes first has a full example.

Day 4, the first email

A letter is easy to notice and awkward to answer. An email is the reverse. So the email follows 3 working days after the letter arrives, while the letter is still recent, and gives the owner a reply button.

The count starts on the day of arrival, so the letter is on the owner's desk before the email is sent. Three working days give the owner time to open it. The gap is short enough that the owner remembers the envelope. The subject line can name the letter, so the email does not arrive as a stranger.

Day 7, the second email

One follow-up is the step with the best evidence behind it. In the 2019 Backlinko study, a single follow-up brought 65.8% more replies. This email earns its place by adding one new fact, such as a second finding from the owner's site. Our cold email follow-up templates give the wording.

Day 11, the third email

The gap widens from 3 working days to 4. An owner who has seen a letter and two emails has had the chance to answer, so each further contact waits a little longer.

The 2019 Backlinko study found that three or more messages did best. This plan stops at three emails and goes no further by email. Every extra email adds to your sending volume, and cold email deliverability depends on keeping that low.

Day 15, the first LinkedIn step

By day 15 your name has reached the owner four times with no answer. A fifth message in the same two channels would add nothing new. A new channel does. Day 15 is a LinkedIn connection request with a message. It shows a face and a profile, and it asks for one click. Our LinkedIn connection messages are written for this step.

Day 19, the second LinkedIn step

When the person accepts the request, a second message follows. It is the last step, and its job is to end the cadence. We would write that this is the final note and leave the decision with the owner. After day 19, nothing else goes out.

Nineteen working days is short next to cadences built for large companies with several decision makers. A local business has one, the owner. Six contacts in just under four weeks give one person enough chances to notice you and decide.

What stops the cadence?

Three things stop it, and the first two override the calendar.

1. A reply. Any reply. The sequence stops for that business at once, and a person answers the same day.
2. A no. A no or an opt-out ends contact on every channel.
3. The last step. After day 19 the business rests.

How long should a business rest before you write again? Our rule of thumb is at least 90 days, and only with a new finding. That figure is an estimate.

Can you run it as a cold email sequence alone?

Yes. The emails on days 4, 7 and 11 work as a three-step cold email sequence. You give up the opener and the change of channel at the end.

Multichannel outreach means the steps of one cadence run through more than one channel. The case for it is that each channel does a different job. The letter gets noticed, the email gets answered and LinkedIn shows a person.

We should be plain about the evidence. Our own test, 3,570 cold emails to Dutch companies, covered email only. It says nothing about what a letter or a LinkedIn step adds. The order in this cadence rests on reasoning about each channel's job. We have no reply figures to back it yet.

How do you run this cadence by hand?

Run it in batches, and count working days from the day the letter arrives.

A batch is a group of businesses that share day 1. Twenty-five is a workable size for one person. Every business in the batch then has the same six dates, and one calendar entry per step covers them all.

Counting working days means you skip Saturdays and Sundays. For a batch whose letters arrive on a Monday, the six steps fall like this.

No step can fall on a weekend, whichever weekday the letter arrives.

Day 1 is the day the letter arrives, so when you post by hand, post it a few days earlier. Then keep one row per business with the six dates and a column for the reply. Our plan for cold outreach to your first 100 prospects shows four batches on one calendar.

How do you know the cadence is working?

Count replies by the step they followed, and change the list before you change the days.

Record four numbers for each batch. Businesses started, replies after each step, positive replies and calls booked. Keep the counts running across batches, because one batch is too small to read.

Then be slow to adjust the timing. In our test, a generic email to businesses with weak websites got 1.60% positive replies, and an email that named the problem got 2.35%. With 3,570 emails sent in total, that gap was still not statistically significant (p = 0.238). If thousands of emails could not settle a wording question, a batch of 25 cannot tell you whether day 7 should be day 8.

The list is where the same test found a clear effect. Businesses with the weakest 20% of websites were about 3.2 times more likely to reply positively than a random sample of the rest. Work on the list first. It is the one change our test supports.

Questions

What is a sales cadence in simple terms?

A sales cadence is a written plan for how and when you contact one prospect. It lists each step, the channel it uses and the number of days between steps. It ends when the prospect replies or when the last step has gone out.

How many touches should a sales cadence have?

This one has six, which are one letter, three emails and two LinkedIn steps. A 2019 Backlinko study of 12 million outreach emails found that three or more messages did best. There is no single right number, so pick one you can keep up for every prospect.

How long should a sales cadence be?

Long enough for a busy owner to notice you and short enough that you stop before you become a nuisance. The cadence in this guide runs 19 working days, which is just under four weeks. Cadences aimed at large companies run longer, because more people take part in the decision.

What is the difference between a sales cadence and a sales sequence?

Most people use the two for the same thing. When a difference is made, the cadence is the rhythm, meaning the channels and the gaps. The sequence is the list of steps and messages that follow that rhythm.

Should a sales cadence include phone calls?

It can. The 19-day plan in this guide has no call step, and Leadodo has cold calling as a tool of its own. Calling costs nothing to send and takes more of your time. Many agency owners will not make cold calls week after week, and a plan you follow beats a better one you skip. The phone fits best once a business has replied.

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Next step. See how your Outbound Machine runs these six steps under your agency's name and stops for every business that replies. Outbound Machine.