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Sales cadence

A sales cadence is the timing and channel plan for reaching one prospect: how many touches, on which channels, how many days apart, and when to stop. The sequence holds the steps and the words, and the cadence decides when each one goes out.

Updated October 2026 · 3 min read · GetSales team

Cadence and sequence

People use the two words for one idea, and so do many tools. When they are kept apart, the sequence is the list of steps and what each one says. The cadence is the rhythm around it: the gaps between steps, the channel each step uses, which days count and the rule for stopping. You can keep a sequence word for word and change its cadence, say from five touches over two weeks to the same five over three.

What a cadence sets

  • Length. The days from the first touch to the last.
  • Touches. How many times you reach out in that window. A profile visit or a wait does not count as one.
  • Spacing. The gap between touches. Put them close together early and further apart later, so the plan does not crowd someone who is still reading.
  • Channels. Which touch goes by email, which by LinkedIn and which by phone, and where a person goes when one channel stays quiet.
  • Working days. Whether weekends count. HubSpot's sequences send follow-ups on business days only unless you switch that off.1
  • Exit rules. What ends it early for a person: a reply, a booked meeting, an opt-out.

How to tune a cadence

Change one thing at a time and read the replies per touch. If the late touches get nothing back, the cadence is too long. If people unsubscribe or complain after the second email, the touches are too close. Complaints count against the sender: Google asks everyone who sends to personal Gmail accounts to keep the spam rate shown in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%.2

In GetSales a workflow runs the cadence. Every step is paced within each account's limits, inside the workflow's sending window, in each person's own time zone when it is known and Follow the person's timezone is on. By default a reply pauses the follow-ups.

Sources

  1. HubSpot Knowledge Base, Create and edit sequences, last updated 20 October 2026. Read 28 October 2026.
  2. Google, Email sender guidelines, Gmail Help, requirements in force since 1 February 2024. Read 28 October 2026.

Last updated: October 2026

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