Sales Cadence: Steps, Examples, Exit Rules

What is a sales cadence?

A sales cadence is the planned order and timing of every touch a rep makes with one prospect. It runs from first contact until the prospect replies or you decide to stop. For each step it answers four questions: which channel, which day, which message, and what happens if the prospect responds. Each prospect gets their own schedule. If you enrol someone on a Wednesday, their second step falls a set number of days after that Wednesday, not on a shared calendar date.

People often mix up a cadence and an email sequence. A sequence is usually just a series of emails. A cadence can mix channels: an email, then a call task, then a LinkedIn connection request, then another email. Salesforce's help documentation calls the feature "Cadences" in its Sales Engagement product, and that's a big part of why the word became standard in sales software. If you only send email, your cadence and your sequence are the same thing. Our guide to an email sequence for cold outreach covers the email-only version and its stop rules.

What goes into a sales cadence?

Every cadence comes down to the same handful of settings, whatever tool runs it. If you leave one undefined, the tool fills it with a default, and defaults are where most cadences go wrong.

• Number of steps: how many touches a prospect gets before leaving the cadence. More steps mean more volume on your sending domain, because every follow-up counts as a sent message.
• Channel per step: email, phone call, LinkedIn or a manual task. Phone and LinkedIn steps are usually tasks for a rep, not automated sends.
• Gap between steps: counted in business days from the previous step, not from enrolment. That way a delayed step pushes the rest back instead of bunching them up.
• Send window: the hours in the recipient's time zone when an email step may go out. If you use your own time zone, prospects abroad get your mail at night.
• Threading: whether a follow-up goes out as a reply in the same thread, carrying In-Reply-To and References headers, or as a new message with a new subject.
• Exit rules: what removes a prospect at once. That's a reply, a hard bounce, an unsubscribe request, a booked meeting, or an out-of-office message saying the person has left.
• End step: the last message. It's often a breakup email that closes the loop politely and says you won't write again.

Exit rules matter most and get the least attention. A cadence that keeps emailing someone who has already replied does more damage than one that sends too few touches.

Sales cadence example: a mixed-channel schedule

The schedule below shows structure, not a benchmark. It describes how the steps relate to each other, not tested day counts. Set the actual gaps to fit your sales cycle and how much your mailbox sends each day.

Step	Timing	Channel	What the step does
Opener	Enrolment day	Email	First touch: one reason for writing, tied to something specific about the recipient, plus one question.
Connect	A short gap after the opener	LinkedIn	Connection request without a pitch. Send it by hand: automating connection requests breaks LinkedIn's User Agreement.
First follow-up	A short gap after the LinkedIn step	Email (threaded reply)	A short follow-up in the same thread that adds one new piece of information instead of 'just checking in'.
Call	A slightly longer gap	Phone task	A call that refers to the email. If nobody answers, leave a voicemail that names the subject line.
New angle	A longer gap	Email (threaded reply)	A different angle: a resource, a short video or a concrete example that fits the recipient's role.
Breakup	The longest gap, last step	Email (threaded reply)	Say you'll stop writing and give them a one-word way to reply.

Notice two things. The gaps get longer towards the end, and every email after the opener is a reply in the original thread, so the recipient sees the whole conversation in one place. For the last step, our article on breakup email templates and timing covers what to write and when.

Sales follow up email template for a cadence step

A sales follow up email template inside a cadence has one job: add something the first email didn't have, then ask one question. The structure below works for any email step after the opener. Send it as a reply in the existing thread so the subject line stays the same.

1. 1 Reference line: one sentence pointing back to the earlier message, without apologising for writing again.
2. 2 New information: one fact, example or resource that wasn't in the previous email.
3. 3 Relevance: why that information matters to this recipient's role or company, in their terms.
4. 4 One question: a single ask that's easy to answer, such as whether a topic is on their list this quarter.
5. 5 Exit option: a line that makes 'not relevant' an acceptable answer, so you get a no back instead of silence.

Don't type "Re:" into the subject of a new message. It won't create a thread, because threading depends on the In-Reply-To and References headers, not the subject. The recipient can also see there was no earlier conversation. For more templates sorted by situation, see our collection of sales follow up email templates.

Sales follow up email examples and samples

Each sample below follows the template and fits a specific step in a cadence. Replace the bracketed parts with something true about the recipient. If you can't find anything true to say, that prospect probably shouldn't be in the cadence yet.

• Follow up sales email sample after no reply: "Hi [Name], one thing I left out last time: [specific fact about their market or tool]. Is [topic] something your team is looking at this quarter, or is it parked? Either answer helps me."
• Sales follow up email sample after a call: "Hi [Name], thanks for your time today. As agreed: [next step] by [date]. I've attached [item you promised]. Does [date] still work for you?"
• Sales follow up email example with a resource: "Hi [Name], here's the [checklist/example] I mentioned. The second page covers [their specific situation]. Worth a short call to go through it together, or would you rather read it on your own?"
• Follow up sales email example as a breakup: "Hi [Name], this is my last email about [topic]. If it becomes relevant later, a one-word reply is enough and I'll pick it up from there."

After a meeting, the cadence changes. You're no longer prospecting, so the timing and tone change too. Our guide to the follow up email after a sales call has templates sorted by how the call went.

Where does a sales cadence break?

Most cadences don't fail because of bad copy. They fail on mechanics. Check these failure modes, each listed with its cause, before you enrol anyone.

• Follow-ups to bounced addresses: if a hard bounce doesn't trigger the exit rule, every later step goes to an address that doesn't exist. Repeated bounces count against your sending domain's reputation.
• Volume spikes from overlapping cadences: if you enrol a batch on one day, its follow-ups pile up on top of the next batch's. Daily volume per mailbox jumps, even though no single cadence looks large.
• Unauthenticated sending: if SPF, DKIM and DMARC aren't set up for the domain in the From address, receiving servers can't tie the mail to your reputation. Every step in the cadence inherits that problem.
• No stop on reply: a reply that lands in a different inbox, or comes from the prospect's colleague, may go undetected. The cadence then carries on as if nobody answered.
• Ignored opt-outs: the US CAN-SPAM Act requires a working opt-out mechanism in commercial email. Germany's Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG) requires prior consent before you send advertising email at all. If a cadence keeps sending after an unsubscribe request, you have a legal problem as well as a reputation one.
• Send windows that ignore time zones: steps go out during the rep's working hours, not the recipient's, and arrive overnight under a pile of other mail.

Daily volume is the setting people underestimate most, because a cadence multiplies it. Our article on how many cold emails per day per mailbox covers that cap. The DNS side is in our guide to DKIM, DMARC and SPF for cold email senders.

Which tool should run a sales cadence?

Most teams pick a cadence tool based on where their contact data already lives. The table compares the options on the same three points: where the cadence runs, what kind of team it suits, and what to check before you rely on it. Features change, so confirm the details in each vendor's own documentation.

Tool	Where the cadence runs	Suits	What to check
Salesforce Sales Engagement (Cadences)	Inside Salesforce, tied to leads and contacts	Teams whose pipeline already lives in Salesforce	Which licence includes it, and which mailbox and domain the email steps go out from
HubSpot Sequences	Inside the HubSpot CRM	Teams running their CRM and marketing on HubSpot	Which plan includes sequences, and how replies are detected so the exit rule fires
Outreach	Standalone sales engagement platform synced to a CRM	Larger sales teams with multi-channel cadences and managers reviewing activity	How the CRM sync handles exit events like bounces and opt-outs
Salesloft	Standalone sales engagement platform synced to a CRM	Sales teams that want call tasks and email steps in one daily view	How replies, bounces and unsubscribes sync back to the CRM
Apollo.io	Prospecting database with built-in sequences	Small teams that find contacts and run cadences in one place	Which domain signs DKIM on the sends, and how bounces from sourced contact data are handled

Whichever tool you choose, the deliverability question doesn't change. The email steps should go out from a mailbox on your own domain, signed with your own DKIM key. For a wider look at the tools around the cadence, see our overview of sales prospecting tools by job.

Video steps in a cadence with EmailFlow OS

This section describes a EmailFlow OS product. EmailFlow OS handles one kind of cadence step: the personalised video email. You record one video and upload it to EmailFlow OS. You connect your Brevo account and your sending domain, then import your prospect list into EmailFlow OS. EmailFlow OS then creates a personalised version of that single recording for each recipient, not one per company, so two people at the same company each get their own version.

Each version goes out from your own inbox, through your own Brevo account, on your own sending domain. It never goes through a shared platform sender. The sending history the cadence builds up sits on your domain, and your DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) stay under your control. As with any other email, the receiving server decides where each message is filed. The full flow is described on the EmailFlow OS personalised video email page.

Questions people ask

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

A sales cadence is the full schedule of touches across every channel: email, phone, LinkedIn and manual tasks. A sequence usually means just the email part. If you only send email, the two are the same. In a mixed cadence, the email sequence is one track within it, and its exit rules need to stop the phone and LinkedIn steps too.

? How many touches should a sales cadence have?

There's no universal number. Three limits decide it: how long your sales cycle is, how much daily volume your sending mailbox can handle (every follow-up counts as a send), and whether each step adds something new. If you can't write a new point for a step, cut the step rather than sending a 'just checking in' message.

? Should follow-up emails in a cadence be replies or new emails?

Send them as replies in the same thread. A threaded reply carries In-Reply-To and References headers, so the recipient's mail client shows the whole conversation. A new email with "Re:" typed into the subject doesn't thread. It only looks like a reply, and the recipient can tell there was no earlier conversation.

? When should a prospect leave a sales cadence?

Right away when they reply, hard-bounce, ask to unsubscribe or book a meeting. If nothing comes back, they leave after the final breakup step. An out-of-office reply should pause the cadence, not end it. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act requires you to honour opt-out requests. In Germany, the UWG requires prior consent before you send advertising email in the first place.