Sales Cadence Best Practices (Tips, Scripts & Templates)
Learn what is sales cadence and how to become a top 1% sales performer with sales cadence best practices. Get a head start with proven scripts and templates.
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What makes a successful cadence?
A successful cadence is measured by its ability to generate leads and close sales. And the key to sales cadence success is all about timing. Engage a prospect too frequently, and you’ll become an annoyance. But reach out too little, and they’re likely to forget about you.
Besides proper timing, sales cadence success depends on:
- Research
- Planning
- Tools and automation
What does a sales cadence include?
Best sales cadences include various forms of outreach designed to appeal to potential customers or client businesses. We’ve touched on a couple already, but there are more than you might think:
- Cold calls: Calling someone who hasn’t previously interacted with your business. These calls help confirm individuals or businesses as potential prospects.
- Email: Email marketing offers a lot of flexibility, with a balance of well-crafted copy and brand graphics. There are lots of places for in-email CTAs, to do things like funnel people to your website.
- SMS: SMS shares a lot of email marketing’s advantages, but with more emphasis on brevity. With how often people are on their phones, SMS marketing is a valuable way to catch a prospect’s attention.
- Snail mail: Despite greater modern emphasis on e-marketing, traditional physical mail still has its place. A tangible reminder of your business can help keep prospects engaged.
- Discovery calls: These calls flesh out your understanding of individual prospects who’ve shown interest. Their background, reason for interest, and issues they need solutions for.
- Demo calls: Demo calls are a hands-on way to show off your product. These tutorial sessions help customers be sure they’re making the right choice.
- Research: Case studies and formal white papers help make an objective case for your product or service. This is especially important for B2B prospects, whose own success may depend on what you can offer.
- Technical documentation: Demo calls aren’t for everyone. Technical docs help people to learn about your products at their own speed.
How to build your sales cadence
Let’s quickly go over how to set up your sales cadence. Then we’ll look at examples of effective structure to put it in context.
1) Touchpoints and timing
First, you need to set the amount of time for the outreach cadence as a whole. Around 17-21 days is ideal. This ensures you have enough time to engage with customer needs and handle any concerns.
It also provides room for the optimum number of touchpoints, usually 8-12. They need to be properly spaced, so as not to irritate your prospects.
You also need to consider optimal timing on a personal level. When are your prospects seeing or engaging with your communications?
2) Outreach methods
Next, figure out the order and combination of outreach methods you’ll use. Omnichannel marketing helps to offer a bespoke, user-friendly experience.
For instance, you might start with social media outreach before moving onto email marketing and demo calls.
3) Automated functions
Running a sales outreach cadence would be much more strenuous if you had to do everything manually. Fortunately, there are plenty of automated marketing tools and functions to make your life easier. Like trigger emails.
What is a trigger email, exactly?
Simply put, it’s an automated email in response to customer actions. Like confirmation messages for sign-ups or orders.
Whereas other touchpoints should be well-spaced, automated functions should generally be as prompt as possible to avoid prospect anxiety.
Examples of effective sales cadence structure
The best way to learn sales cadence best practices is to see what they actually look like. So, here are a few examples depending on what kind of prospect interaction you’re dealing with.
Outbound sales cadence
In this situation, you’re communicating with a new potential prospect. A complete stranger.
As such, it’s best to keep your overall number of touchpoints small to avoid driving them off. For example:
- Day 1: Initial email or SMS
- Day 2: Follow-up email or SMS
- Day 4: Call
- Day 7-8: Further email
- Day 12: Call
- Day 14: Final email
Inbound sales cadence
Inbound sales are when a customer contacts or interacts with your business.
This means they’re more likely to have enthusiasm for what you’re offering, so you can afford to be more liberal with your cadence duration and number of touchpoints.
These days, brands get more and more business via social media marketing, so let’s use that in this example:
- Day 1: Social media interaction
- Day 2: Mailing list CTA via social media
- Day 5: Email or SMS
- Day 8: Call
- Day 12: Email or SMS
- Day 18: Call and voicemail
- Day 25: Email and SMS
- Day 30+: Call or email
B2B sales cadence
Finally, let’s look at a cadence for B2B prospects. Just be aware, when dealing with other businesses, you’ll inevitably have to work around their schedule.
As such, the following should be flexible:
- Day 1: Initial call
- Day 2: Follow-up email
- Day 4: Call
- Day 10: Email
- Day 16: Email or call
- Day 30: Phone call and email
- Day 60: Email
- 1 month later: Email
- 4 months later: Phone call
Cold prospecting call script
The following is an example of how you might conduct a cold prospecting call:
You: Hello. Am I speaking to [prospect name]?
Prospect confirmation
You: Excellent. I am [your name] with [company name]. Do you have a moment to chat?
Prospect declines
You: That’s alright. Would you mind if I called you back at a later time?
Prospect: No, sorry, I’d rather you didn’t.
You: I understand. If you’re interested in more information, you can go to [web domain] or contact us directly at [LinkedIn or email].
Alternatively, the prospect accepts
You: Thank you. Our company specializes in [company summary]. I’m calling today to talk to you about [relevant product or service].
Prospect: I already have [competing product or service].
You: I understand, but there are some key advantages we have over other leading competitors. Would you like to know what they are?
Prospect: Sure.
You: [Conclude with a brief summary of marketable benefits].
If you’re relying heavily on phone calls for your prospecting you may need a call center scheduling tool to space interactions effectively. A virtual call center can also be something to consider for the long run.
But keep in mind that you shouldn’t be relying on just one touchpoint. Different customers have their own needs and preferences. It’s all about finding the right balance to engage the most people.
Sales proposal templates
I’ve brought you here some highly effective interactive sales proposal templates that will level up your game, make you stand out, and help you lock in more deals.
These templates were made with Storydoc’s proposal maker and were refined for performance based on over 100,000 proposal reading sessions.
You can grab one of the options below. And if you want to go the traditional way, you can start with this basic PDF template by Hubspot.
Cold email template
Rounding off our list of scripts and templates, here’s a simple example of how a cold email should look. We’re mainly focusing on body text, but don’t forget to create an enticing subject line.
Tools needed for a successful sales cadence
To round things off, let’s look at some of the essential tools for sales cadence best practices. This sales cadence software and functions can save you a lot of time, as well as costly mistakes.
1) Content creation tools
To stand out in a competitive environment you’ll need outstanding content. Writing well has become possible for everyone with the rise of AI writers. You can use these for emails, SMS, and social selling.
For improving your sales calls and demos you can use sales intelligence tools like Gong to analyze your conversations and improve your scripts and skills based on data and AI-generated insights.
To get the most out of your proposals use interactive sales content creators like Storydoc’s AI proposal maker which puts you in a position to stand out and win against your competitor’s dull bids.
Here’s what you could look like compared to your competitors:
Your competitors' PDF
Your Storydoc
2) Compliance tools
When it comes to handling sensitive customer data, you can’t do without proper TCPA software. Compliance tools ensure you’re adhering to data-handling regulations.
Without it, you’ll make mistakes that are costly in both fines and company reputation. A robust internal auditing process will help keep your business compliant.
3) Automation tools
Speaking of data, you won’t get anywhere sifting through it manually. Automated tools can analyze it in a fraction of the time. Especially when AI is involved.
AI tools for sales will likely play a big role in scalability in the years to come.
4) Legacy modernization
Finally, what about companies that’ve been around for a while?
With everything on the cloud these days, it’s tempting to burn your physical records and start again.
However, legacy modernization techniques offer a better solution. Digitizing old records for the cloud is quick and easy. Plus, once it’s done, you’ll never have to worry about it again.
5) Admin dashboard
Admin dashboard gives you real-time sales insights, letting you track sales pipeline data, and performance and make quick decisions.
It’s customizable, secure, and ensures your team stays focused on what matters most. This tool streamlines everything, keeping you organized and efficient.
