When you work in sales, it's tempting to spend all your time in the field or on your phone trying to close deals; administration and planning is usually the last thing on the agenda. 

However, sitting down and planning your sales outbound cadence can save you time in the long run — and even make you more effective at selling. 

In fact, forward-thinking and automation closes deals faster, every time. 

Understanding outbound prospecting

Outbound prospecting is a form of direct marketing whereby sales representatives or business development executives identify target customers before reaching out to them directly to introduce their business and its offerings. 

Sales reps can use many modern tools to do this. However, their approach generally involves compiling a lead list and then systematically working through it to qualify them and push prospects through the sales funnel. 

Outbound sales vary slightly in B2B and B2C companies. In B2B companies, the sales cycles are usually very long and require multiple touchpoints and numerous follow-ups. As a result, B2B sales reps will usually log all their contacts and make notes on them using a CRM tool like Salesforce so that sales reps can double-check what was discussed before reaching out to prospects.

In B2C companies, there are usually fewer touchpoints but way more contacts and a longer list of prospects they have to work through. 

Design an effective outbound sales cadence

Creating a sales cadence for your outbound sales can significantly improve your sales efforts and conversion rate. Consider drafting and adjusting a template based on your team's experiences in the field until you find the winning formula. 

Start with the objective

What would you like to achieve during your outbound cadence? For some, a demo is the end goal. Others want clients to sign up for a free trial. In any case, make sure you map your cadence with the end goal in mind. Don't be over-ambitious and aim for a close each time. The purpose of a cadence is to lead your prospective client to a place where they are interested in closing. 

Evaluate your channels and resources

What is the best way to reach your prospects? Emails, calls, or well-developed social media channels are a perfect way to connect with your targeted prospects. The number of channels you will employ ultimately depends on your budget and workload timelines. 

Personalize your communications

If you are in the B2C sales space, you might not have the time to type a personalized email to each lead. However, tools like Salesforce or other CRM platforms can personalize your communications even at larger scales. 

A/B test what you do/say

Try sending different emails or messages to your prospects to determine which resonates and generates the best response rates. For example, you could send two identical emails in every way except for the subject line. 

Subject Line A could say, "Our Company Solves X problem," and Subject Line B could read, "Our Company Saves X $ every month." 

As expected, the email with the best open rates is the one you should start using. 

Design your cadence 

Design how many contact points you want to have with your prospects and which channels you'd like to use. The number of touchpoints depends on the number of value propositions you'd like to present (e.g., saving money, solving problems, saving time, etc.). It usually takes about 8-10 points of interaction to get a good response. Start with a social touch (e.g., connect on LinkedIn), then send an email, a follow-up call, another email, etc. 

Make sure that you consider the purpose of each touchpoint and what you would like to achieve. For example, do you want to build rapport? Share information? Encourage an action? 

You should also ensure you space out your points of contact to avoid coming off as annoying to your prospective customers. Consumers are usually more tolerant of email or social media touchpoints than phone calls. 

Successful outbound cadence templates

After or even before designing your own cadence, you should check some already-existing outbound cadence templates that have proved their good outcome time and time again. These are the top three ones that have had high success rates: 

Two-week outbound cadence template

Since the prospective client you are trying to contact has had no previous connection with you, you could start with a cold 6-touchpoint approach. 

To ensure that you are not just spamming them from every channel possible, you could space out the points of contact, so they last for about two weeks. 

If there has been no response until then, you can send a break-up email and follow-up with one touchpoint every quarter. 

• For example: 
  
• Day 1: First Email and First LinkedIn Connection
• Day 2: Email
• Day 4: Morning Phone Call, Evening Voicemail
• Day 7: Email and InMail
• Day 11: Phone Call
• Day 14: Break-Up Email (if the prospective client has not responded)

10-Day outbound cadence template

A shorter but equally effective way of approaching a possible client is by using the 10-day approach.

• It has been recommended by Sales Hacker CEO Max Altschuler and can be adapted depending on the individual and the company they are a part of that you are trying to close: 
• Day 1: First Email
• Day 3: Morning Email, Afternoon Call
• Day 5: Morning Call, Afternoon Call with Voicemail, followed by social media touchpoint‍
• Day 7: Morning Email, Afternoon Call with Voicemail
• Day 10: Morning Email followed by Call
  

Outbound cadence template for longer sales procedures

This particular approach is for lengthier sales procedures and can last up to two and a half months. Even though it does not include a social media touchpoint, you can still find a way to integrate it combined with the suggested phone calls or emails. However, that always depends on the profile of your prospective client.

• This is the suggested template:
• Day 1: First Email
• Day 2: Morning Call with Voicemail, Afternoon Email
• Day 7: Morning Email, Afternoon Call with Voicemail
• Day 14: Morning Call with Voicemail (can replace or add social media touchpoint to avoid repetition), Afternoon Email
• Day 21: Morning Email, Afternoon Call with Voicemail
• Day 35: Morning Call with Voicemail, Afternoon Email (can replace or add social media touchpoint to avoid repetition)
• Day 49: Morning Email, Afternoon Call with Voicemail
• Day 63: Morning Call with Voicemail, Afternoon Email (can replace or add social media touchpoint to avoid repetition)
• Day 77: Morning Email, Afternoon Call with Voicemail
  

Automate with sales engagement tools 

If you need to reach out to 50 prospects a day, with 10 points of contact for each in a month, you need 10,000 touchpoints monthly! Tracking the progress of all of those outreaches is not possible, which is why sales engagement tools can help. You can set up an automated cadence of emails and interactions to move the deal forward. 

Automation will also enable you to draw analytical insights from your interactions to improve the efficiency of your sales efforts. This way, you'll be able to view which interactions drive the most engagement from your customers.

How to integrate your CTI with high-velocity sales

There are several benefits of integrating your dialer with HVS: you can log tasks, advance sales cadences automatically when calls are completed, branch your sales cadence based on results and make full use of the Einstein Conversation Intelligence feature.

High Velocity Sales can support third-party CTI providers if:

a. You are using Open CTI for Lightning Experience.
b. Your CTI solution uses click-to-dial.
c. The saveLog() Open CTI meth

If you don’t use the Open CTI methods, some details may be lost, and you may need to complete a few steps to advance your cadence manually. You can consult the developer guide online for more detailed instructions. 

Partner solutions approved by Salesforce are listed on the AppExchange, and more information is available on the partner page. 

Guidelines for setting up a cadence

When setting up a cadence, remember that only leads, contacts, and person accounts are supported and only in one active sales cadence at a time. Your tasks related to sales cadence steps will be created and updated automatically, but can’t be edited, only deleted after a cadence step is complete. 

Limitations include: 

a. A maximum of 100 steps in a sales cadence
b. A maximum wait step length of 60 days
c. Only 200 targets may be added to sales cadence at once
d. Only Lightning email templates can be used when pre-defining an email template for a sales cadence
e. There is a 150,000 limit of active sales cadence targets, but this can be increased by contacting Customer Support.

Using salesforce for outbound sales

Use Salesforce's High-Velocity App to run your entire sales cadence. You want to create a cadence that reflects your preferred sales outreach methods and patterns. 

First, select Sales Cadence from the Actions Menu and choose New. Next, add your name and click the plus icon.

From there:

a. Add a sales step (phone call, email, custom step); 
b. Choose the type of sales outreach you want to add. You can add a call script that appears automatically when a sales rep initiates a call from their Work Queue. If you opt for email, you can set up automated emails. Alternatively, employ LinkedIn and send an InMail or Connection Request. InMails can be set up to send a specific template;
c. Custom Steps can include text messages, Facebook messages, meeting requests, or even sending a brochure;
d. Select the duration of waiting (from 1 hour to 60 days);
e. You can save your steps or add more, up to 100 steps.
f. When finished, click End Step, Exit, and choose an active sales cadence to send to prospects.

Using work queues

We’ve already mentioned Work Queues, which shows reps what next steps to take. A rep’s Work Queue will appear as a prioritized task list inside the Sales Console. From there, they can use email templates and the Sales Dialer (the rapid click-to-call solution) with no time wasted to make a quick call without manually dialling. 

The teams can use Einstein Lead Scoring to analyze their sales history to predict which leads are most likely to convert and then assign scores to leads so that sales reps can contact them in order of priority. This can help reps stay productive and spend more time selling. 

Example of a low priority account sales cadence vs high priority account in your work queue

• According to Salesforce, you should use the following cadence for low-priority accounts:
• Call.
• Wait 50 days.
• Call.
• Repeat.

However, if Einstein Lead Scoring indicates that a lead is highly likely to convert, so you should adopt a slightly more aggressive approach:

• However, if Einstein Lead Scoring indicates that a lead is highly likely to convert, so you should adopt a slightly more aggressive approach:
  
• Call.
• Wait 2 hours.
• Call. If the lead doesn’t answer, leave a voicemail and send them an email.
• Wait 2 days. Call again. 
• Wait 2 days. Call again. If the lead doesn’t answer, leave a voicemail and send an email. 
• Wait 2 days. Call again. 
• Wait 2 days. Call again. 
• Repeat until the target is reached or the lead score drops below your targeted threshold for qualified leads.

Alternatives to high velocity sales

Of course, High Velocity Sales is not the only product of its kind on the market. Many companies use Outreach for outbound sales flow task management and email automation.  

Like HVS, Outreach has numerous customizable sequences that allow different prospecting methods, and calls are quick and easy to make. The biggest complaint about Outreach is its learning curve and a few bugs that can cause the app to fail to connect to headsets (or muddle the audio). Users have also reported that Outreach often fails to sync with Salesforce. 

Salesloft receives much better reviews, although it’s generally better suited to larger enterprises than small or mid-sized businesses. It doesn’t offer integration with all instances of LinkedIn, and users have reported that calls aren’t always logged on the same day. 

Groove has been making strides in the market, although it’s not considered as scalable as Salesloft or Salesforce. User management can be confusing, and the system is experiencing a few issues with formatting and implementation. As a new player on the market, it also requires frequent updates, which can be frustrating to sales reps.

Ready to launch your outbound sales cadence? 

Following up on inbound sales leads is the key to turning prospects into sales. If you are looking for more insight, check out this blog post on best cadence creation tips.

You can try PhoneIQ for High Velocity Sales free by signing up here.