Create a Cadence

What is a Cadence?

A SalesLoft Cadence is a repeatable series of steps, or sequence, that mimics your sales process to create a consistent process. Your Cadences in SalesLoft allow you to seamlessly execute your tasks in a way that fits your work rhythm (or cadence...get it?). 

Since every sales process is different, SalesLoft allows you to create and customize your Cadences to your preferences.

Cadences consist of email, phone, "other," and/or integration steps. 

The same creation process is used for you are creating personal and Team Cadences, or shared Cadences between all users on your team.

In this article, we will walk through the steps to create a Cadence, including:

• Cadence Settings Page
• Show Advanced Settings - Cadence External Identifier
• Add an Email Step
• Add a Phone Step
• Add an Other Step
• Add an Integration Step
• Automate an Email Step
• Thread an Email
• SLU: Creating a Cadence (Video)

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Cadence Settings Page

Before you can build out your workflow, you need to set up your Cadence from the Create a Cadence page. Here you will name the Cadence, assign Cadence specific rules, and select person stages.

Let's walk through the Create a Cadence page:

1. Go to the Cadences page from the side nav (rocket ship icon).
2. Click the blue + Add Cadence button in the top right corner.
3. Enter your Cadence’s name in the text box. Your Cadence’s name should give you a quick idea of this Cadence’s use. For example, you could name your Cadence after the role of people you are reaching out to (i.e. VP of Sales) and then follow that with a breakdown of how many steps will run over however many days (so a 10 step Cadence that runs for 14 days would be “10 x 14”.)
4. Add your daily people target. The daily people target is the number of people that you want to add to your Cadence every day to keep you on target for your sales goals. If you do not meet your goal for a day, there are no penalties within the application. So if you create a Cadence and know you need to consistently reach out to 20 people per day in order to meet your quota, set your daily people target to 20.
5. Select the Cadence Function dropdown to define the use case of your Cadence. You may choose one of the following options: 
   • Outbound: denotes an outbound cadence, typically for sales purposes.
   • Inbound: denotes an inbound sales cadence.
   • Event: denotes a cadence used for an upcoming event.
   • Other: denotes a cadence outside of the standard process. 
6. Click the checkboxes for the fixed settings you would like to apply to your Cadence. There are three available settings to choose.
• Automatically remove people from this Cadence if they reply: Removes people from the Cadence once they reply to an email sent from the Cadence.  
• Automatically remove people from this Cadence if their email bounces: Removes people from the Cadence if you receive a bounce back, meaning the email was incorrect or not deliverable.   
• Include an opt-out link in all emails sent from this Cadence: Adds a link at the bottom of your email so people can opt-out of future messaging. The opt-out link will mark the person as Do Not Contact in SalesLoft.
7. Select the Owner (if applicable). The owner will default to your name.
8. Set the Priority level of the Cadence. The priority will allow you to sort your Cadences by which one is most important to you or your team when you run the Cadence. Things to Note: Team admins can edit the priority levels to fit your team.
   • High
   • Medium 
   • Low
   • None (Default)
9. Add tags.
10. Select your Sharing Settings.
11. Select your Stages. You can put people into stages after a certain action has happened, the person stage will update and reflect where they are in the sales cycle. You can set stages for the following actions:
• Email Bounces
• Replied to your email
• When you first add them to a Cadence
• When they complete a Cadence.
12. (Optional) Show Advanced Settings
13. Click the blue Save Cadence button.
14. Once a Cadence is saved, you will be taken to the Cadence Overview page. You can edit you Cadence at any time from the individual Cadence settings page.

While your Cadence has been created, it doesn’t have any actual meat to it. Now, you need to build your process out by adding steps to your Cadence.

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Show Advanced Settings - Cadence External Identifier

The External Identifier helps identify a specific Cadence based on one identifier. It comes in handy when a team wants to report on an individual Cadence's track record or a group of Cadences.

The External Identifier can be mapped and pushed to your CRM in the Activity Field Mapping. To add the External Identifier to a Cadence, follow these steps:

1. Create the Cadence. 
2. At the bottom of the Create a Cadence page, click Show advanced settings...
3. In the External Identifier text field, enter the name you want to associate to this Cadence. You can add whatever identifier you would like, but we recommend using a naming convention you will remember (like Cadence-31 or a series of numbers).
4. Hit Save.

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Add an Email Step

To add an email step to your Cadence, follow these steps:

1. From your Cadence’s overview page, add a Cadence step.
2. In the Create Step box, select the email icon.
3. Enter the Day you would like the step to run.
4. (Optional Field) Automate this step.
5. Hit Next.
6. The Create Email Step box will appear. Here you have two options:
• Choose a previously created template.
• Compose a new message.
7. Email Yourself a Preview.
8. Click Add & Create Another to continue adding steps to your Cadence or Add Step to add the step and close the add step window.

SLU: Adding an Email Step to a Cadence (Video)

Want to know about how to add an Email step, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Adding an Email Step to a Cadence video tutorial. 

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Add a Phone Step

To add a phone step to your Cadence, follow these steps:

1. From your Cadence’s overview page, add a Cadence step. 
2. In the Create Step box, select the phone icon.
3. Enter the Day you would like the step to run.
4. Hit Next.
5. Give your phone step a name to let you know what the purpose of this call will be. Common examples include “Intro Call” or “Follow up with a Voicemail.”
6. Add any instructions you think are necessary. Instructions can include a script you may use or bullet points of the points you’d like to make during the call.
7. Click Add & Create Another to continue adding steps to your Cadence or Add Step to add the step and close the add step window.

SLU: Adding a Phone Step to a Cadence (Video)

Want to know about how to add a Phone step, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Adding a Phone Step to a Cadence video tutorial. 

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Add an Other Step

Think of "other" steps like your sales process's catch-all that could involve anything from connecting with a social touch to sending swag or cupcakes.

To add an other step to your Cadence, follow these steps:

1. From your Cadence’s overview page, add a Cadence step.
2. In the Create Step box, select the other icon.
3. Enter the Day you would like the step to run.
4. Hit Next.
5. Give your other step a name to let you know what the purpose of this call will be. Common examples include “Research” or “Hand-Written Letter.”
6. Add any instructions you would like listed.
7. Click Add & Create Another to continue adding steps to your Cadence or Add Step to add the step and close the add step window.

SLU: Adding an "Other" Step to a Cadence (Video)

Want to know about how to add an "Other" step, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Adding an "Other" Step to a Cadence video tutorial. 

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Add an Integration Step

Integration steps bring SalesLoft's most powerful integrations into your consistent sales process.

Currently SalesLoft offers the following integration steps. Click the link to learn more about the each integration step:

• ZipWhip: send out text messages to your prospects.
• Sendoso: send direct mail, swag, gifts, notes, and anything else you may want delivered to your prospects.
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator: take one of the following four LinkedIn actions within your Cadence.
  • Research: Read up on your prospect’s recent LinkedIn news or activities so you are familiar with your prospect and their company prior to your interactions.
  • Introduction:  Get introduced to a prospect through a mutual connection.
  • Connection Request:  Send a LinkedIn invitation to another person.
  • InMail: Message the prospect via LinkedIn InMail.

Things to Note: Integration steps are not included as "other steps" in the SalesLoft analytics. The calculation for "Complete steps" includes all steps, including integration steps. 

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Automate an Email Step

Sometimes you may want an email step to run automatically, meaning that if a person is on that step they will receive the email without you having to hit send.

To automate an email step, select the checkbox Automate this step below the Day selector. Once the box is checked, the Send Email options dropdown will appear. Click the dropdown menu and choose one of following options:

• At a Specific Time: Allows automated emails to be sent at a specific time. When you select this option the following fields will appear for you to fill out:
  • Select Time: Type in a time of click the clock icon on the right side of the text box to open the time dropdown. Select a time. 
  • Select Time Zone’s: Pick one of the following options:
    
    • Person's Time Zone
    • Your Time Zone
• After a Time Delay: Enter the number of minutes after a Person enters this step you want the email to wait before sending.

SLU: Automating an Email Step (Video)

Want to know about automating an Email step, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Automating an Email Step video tutorial. 

Send on Weekends

Below the Send Email options, you will see the Send on Saturdays and Sundays checkbox. Now, typically, Cadence emails do not send on weekends, seeing as most people are taking that time away from work. However, sending and automated email on weekends has a special niche audience for inbound leads.

Here's a best practice scenario. Let's say a new lead fills out a form on your website during the weekend. You (and a team admin with permissions to create Automation Rules) can update your inbound experience by setting up the following in SalesLoft.

Things to Note:

• Steps will only run on a Saturday or Sunday if a Person starts a Cadence and the Day of an automatically scheduled email step is a Saturday or Sunday. Outside of that, the automated step will occur the day of the week the Person is due for that step. 
• The scheduled, automated email step will be the only step that runs during the weekend. All other steps will still be due on weekdays. For example, if you have a Day 1 automated email step followed by a Day 1 automated call step, the email step will run on a scheduled Saturday, however, the call step will be due that Monday. 

To create an automated email step that sends on the weekend, follow these instructions:

1. Create an Automation Rule to add new marketing qualified leads to an Inbound Cadence.
2. Create an Inbound Cadence or update your existing Cadence. 
3. Edit the first step in the cadence to be an automated email.
4. Set to send after 0 min time delay.
5. Check the box to Send on Saturdays and Sundays.

 

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Thread an Email Step

By threading your email, the subject line of the email will show as “Re: (previously email’s subject line) and your recipient will see the previous message underneath your email.

While adding steps to your Cadence, you can choose to thread follow-up emails to any emails a come before it. 

Follow the steps below to thread an email:

1. Select the Cadence you want to add your email to from the Cadences page.
2. In the Cadence Overview, add a Cadence step.
3. Pick Email, and select the day you want your step to run.
4. Choose your Template or compose your own message.
5. Find the New Thread dropdown to the left of the Choose a Template.
6. Click the drop-down arrows. You will have the option to thread any prior email step.
7. Hit Add Step.

SLU: Threading an Email Step (Video)

Want to know about how to thread an Email step, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Threading an Email Step video tutorial. 

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SLU: Creating a Cadence (Video)

Want to know learn about creating Cadences, but prefer a video format? Visit SalesLoft University to see the Creating a Cadence video tutorial.