Design a Multi-Channel Outbound Cadence
Help the user design a complete outbound cadence for Salesloft, Mailshake, Smartlead, Lemlist, Yesware, or Hunter.io — from architecture and timing through full content for every step, A/B testing, and optimization benchmarks.
Step 1 — Gather context
If references/learnings.md exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.
Ask the user:
-
What's the campaign goal?
- A) Cold outbound — net-new prospects, no prior relationship
- B) Inbound follow-up — responding to a lead that came in
- C) Trigger-based — responding to a signal (job change, funding round, tech install, intent data)
- D) Re-engagement — reviving a cold or stalled conversation
- E) Expansion — reaching new contacts at existing customer accounts
- F) Other — describe it -
Who is the target persona? (title, seniority, industry, company size)
-
What channels are available?
- A) Email only
- B) Email + phone
- C) Email + phone + LinkedIn
- D) Email + phone + LinkedIn + video
- E) Other combination — describe -
What constraints should I know about?
- Total duration (e.g., 14 days, 21 days, 30 days)
- Max touches per week
- Existing messaging or value props to incorporate
- Compliance requirements (GDPR, CAN-SPAM, industry-specific)
- Any channels to avoid or emphasize
If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step. Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end — don't gate your response behind gathering complete context.
Step 2 — Cadence architecture
Design the cadence structure as a table:
| Day | Step | Channel | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Intro email (A/B subject lines) | Personalization Level 3+ | |
| 1 | 2 | Profile view + connection request | Same day as email | |
| 3 | 3 | Phone | Call attempt #1 + voicemail | Reference email |
| 4 | 4 | Follow-up email (value-add) | Different angle from Step 1 | |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Design principles
- Channel mixing: Never send 3+ touches in the same channel consecutively. Alternate between email, phone, and LinkedIn.
- Spacing:
- Days 1-7: Higher intensity (touch every 1-2 days) — this is when engagement peaks
- Days 8-14: Medium intensity (every 2-3 days)
- Days 15+: Lower intensity (every 3-4 days) — don't burn the prospect
- Touch count by persona (typical ranges — adjust based on persona, sales cycle, and industry norms):
- C-suite / VP: 8-12 touches over 21-28 days (less aggressive, more spaced)
- Director / Manager: 12-16 touches over 21-30 days (standard)
- Individual contributor / practitioner: 10-14 touches over 14-21 days (shorter cycle)
- Phone placement: Always within 24 hours after an email so you can reference it ("I just sent you a note about...")
- LinkedIn: Use early for connection + later for social proof or content sharing. Don't be repetitive with email.
- Final touch: Always a "breakup" email — creates urgency without being pushy
Step 3 — Write content for every step
For each step in the cadence, write the actual content:
Email templates
For each email:
- Subject line: Provide A/B variants (Variant A and Variant B)
- Body: Full email text with personalization tokens in {{brackets}}
- CTA: Specific ask (meeting, reply, resource)
- Keep emails under 125 words for cold outbound, under 200 for warm follow-up
Call scripts
For each call step:
- Opening (first 10 seconds — must earn the right to continue)
- Reason for calling (one sentence connecting to their world)
- Key questions (2-3 if they engage)
- Ask (meeting request with specific time)
- Voicemail script (under 30 seconds, always leave one)
LinkedIn messages
- Connection request note: Under 300 characters, no selling
- Follow-up InMail or message: Reference a specific post, mutual connection, or insight about their company
- Keep LinkedIn casual and conversational — it's a social platform, not email
Video guidance (if applicable)
- When to use: Steps 5+ when email hasn't gotten a response
- Duration: 60-90 seconds max
- Structure: Say their name, show you did research, one key insight, soft CTA
For platform-specific cadence implementation (Salesloft, Mailshake, Lemlist, Smartlead, Mixmax, Reply.io, Woodpecker, Hunter.io, Seamless.AI, Closum, Minelead, GetProspect, ZoomInfo, Snov.io, 6sense, Clay, BrandJet, AiSDR, Nooks, Orum, Amplemarket, Sendr, LeadIQ, Waalaxy, Linked Helper), see references/platforms.md.
Personalization framework
- Level 1 (Minimum): First name, company name, title — the bare minimum
- Level 2 (Standard): Industry reference, company-size-specific pain point
- Level 3 (Strong): Something specific about their company (recent news, tech stack, job posting, quarterly results)
- Level 4 (Elite): Personal insight (their LinkedIn post, podcast appearance, conference talk, published article)
Recommend Level 3+ for all touches in a cold outbound cadence. Level 2 is acceptable for re-engagement at scale.
For Level 3+ at scale (100+ prospects), consider AI personalization: Smartlead SmartAgents, Clay, or custom GPT workflows to research each prospect and generate personalized snippets for {{custom_field}} merge variables. This automates the research step that makes Level 3-4 feasible at volume.
Step 4 — A/B testing plan
Design an A/B testing strategy:
| Test # | What to test | Variant A | Variant B | Metric | Min sample size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Subject line (Step 1) | Pain-focused | Curiosity-based | Open rate | 100 sends each |
| 2 | CTA style (Step 1) | Specific time ask | Open-ended question | Reply rate | 100 sends each |
| 3 | Email length (Step 4) | Short (75 words) | Medium (125 words) | Reply rate | 100 sends each |
A/B testing rules
- Test one variable at a time
- Run each test for at least 100 sends per variant (200+ preferred) before drawing conclusions
- Primary metric: positive reply rate (not just open rate)
- Wait at least 5 business days before evaluating results
- Roll the winner into the cadence and start the next test
- Always be testing something — cadences decay over time as messaging gets stale
Step 5 — Metrics and optimization
Provide a benchmarks table:
| Metric | Good | Great | If below "Good"... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open rate | 40-50% | 50%+ | Fix subject lines, check deliverability, verify email addresses |
| Reply rate (total) | 8-12% | 15%+ | Improve personalization, test different angles, check targeting |
| Positive reply rate | 3-5% | 7%+ | Revisit value prop, check ICP fit, strengthen the ask |
| Meeting booked rate | 2-4% | 5%+ | Improve CTA clarity, offer more flexibility, add social proof |
| Bounce rate | <3% | <1% | Clean your list, use email verification tools, check domain health |
| Unsubscribe rate | <1% | <0.5% | Reduce frequency, improve relevance, check compliance |
| Call connect rate | 5-10% | 12%+ | Try different times of day, use local presence dialing, vary call days |
Optimization cadence
- Week 1-2: Let the cadence run, gather baseline data
- Week 3-4: Analyze first A/B test results, implement winners
- Monthly: Review full-funnel metrics, retire underperforming steps, test new angles
- Quarterly: Major refresh — new messaging, updated case studies, seasonal angles
Before recommending a specific platform skill
This skill covers a strategy domain across many platforms. Before pointing the user to any specific platform skill (any /sales-{platform} listed in ## Related skills, e.g., /sales-mailshake, /sales-klaviyo, /sales-apollo), read that platform skill's actual SKILL.md first. The 1-line description in ## Related skills is enough to identify a candidate — it's not enough to commit to it or to write a prompt that invokes it well.
How to read it:
- If ~/.claude/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md exists locally, Read it.
- For sales-* skills, WebFetch directly from this repo: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md — e.g., for sales-mailshake: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/sales-mailshake/SKILL.md.
- For non-sales-* skills (third-party), look up {org}/{repo} in ~/.claude/skills/sales-do/references/skill-sources.md if installed and fetch the same skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md path under that repo.
After reading, ground your recommendation in something concrete from the SKILL.md (its scope, a sub-flow, its argument-hint shape, or a "Do NOT use for..." negative trigger). Align any generated invocation with the platform skill's argument-hint. If the platform skill turns out not to fit the user's situation, swap to another or handle the question here directly rather than recommending a poor fit.
Related skills
/sales-salesloft— General Salesloft platform help (Rhythm, Analytics, Drift, admin)/sales-deliverability— Email deliverability — SPF/DKIM/DMARC, warmup, inbox placement/sales-mailshake— Mailshake platform help (campaigns, Lead Catcher, settings)/sales-smartlead— Smartlead platform help (campaigns, SmartSenders, SmartAgents, API)/sales-lemlist— Lemlist platform help (sequences, Lemwarm, LinkedIn automation, enrichment, API)/sales-lagrowthmachine— La Growth Machine platform help (LinkedIn-first multichannel outbound — LinkedIn/email/X sequences, per-identity safety limits, enrichment + intent signals; REST APIapiv2.lagrowthmachine.com/flow(apikey) enroll-into-audience + inbox webhooks + MCP; API/webhooks on Ultimate)/sales-instantly— Instantly platform help (high-volume cold-email campaigns/subsequences across unlimited inboxes, Unibox, v2 API + webhooks)/sales-call-review— Review calls from your cadence to improve scripts/sales-email-tracking— Email engagement tracking — open/click/attachment signals for follow-up timing/sales-brandjet— BrandJet AI platform help — multi-channel outreach, brand intelligence, AI monitoring/sales-revenue-io— Revenue.io platform help (Salesforce-native Guided Selling cadences, RingDNA dialer, Moments coaching)/sales-nooks— Nooks platform help (AI parallel dialer, multi-channel sequencing, coaching, waterfall enrichment)/sales-orum— Orum platform help (AI parallel dialer, coaching suite, virtual salesfloor)/sales-outreach-io— Outreach platform help (sequences, Kaia CI, deal management, forecasting, coaching)/sales-amplemarket— Amplemarket platform help (all-in-one: data + sequences + signals + deliverability + Duo AI)/sales-sendr— Sendr platform help (lipsync video, dynamic pages, Lead Finder, campaign sequencing)/sales-leadiq— LeadIQ platform help (Scribe AI outreach writer, Chrome extension prospecting, champion tracking)/sales-waalaxy— Waalaxy platform help (budget LinkedIn-first outreach via Chrome extension — ready-made sequences, Email Finder, import/enroll prospects via REST API on Advanced/Business)/sales-linkedhelper— Linked Helper platform help (cheap standalone desktop LinkedIn automation app — auto connect/message/InMail funnels, email finder, built-in CRM; no inbound API, outbound webhooks + native CRM sync; desktop-only so campaigns stop when the computer's off; account-restriction risk)/sales-do— Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill
Gotchas
- Don't make all touches email-only. Claude defaults to generating email-heavy cadences. A real cadence needs channel mixing — if the user has phone and LinkedIn available, use them from the start, not as afterthoughts.
- Don't space touches too close together. Avoid scheduling touches less than 2 business days apart (except same-day email + LinkedIn on Day 1). Prospects need time to engage before you follow up.
- Don't write generic "just checking in" follow-ups. Every touch must add new value or a new angle. If you catch yourself writing "I wanted to follow up on my last email," rewrite it with a new hook.
- Don't ignore timezone for call steps. Phone calls placed outside business hours are wasted touches. If you know the prospect's timezone, note the best call windows (typically 8-10am and 4-6pm local time).
-
Don't generate a cadence without confirming channel availability first. If the user didn't specify channels, ask — don't assume they have LinkedIn Sales Navigator or a phone dialer.
-
Self-improving: If you discover something not covered here, append it to
references/learnings.mdwith today's date.
Examples
Example 1: Cold outbound cadence
User says: "Build a 21-day cold outbound cadence for VP Engineering at Series B SaaS companies. We have email, phone, and LinkedIn."
Skill does:
1. Designs a 14-step cadence architecture table with channel mixing
2. Writes full email copy with A/B subject lines, call scripts with voicemail, LinkedIn messages
3. Provides an A/B testing plan and benchmark metrics
Result: Complete cadence ready to import into Salesloft with content for every step
Example 2: Cadence optimization
User says: "My cadence has 35% open rate but only 2% reply rate. What's wrong?"
Skill does:
1. Diagnoses the gap (subject lines work, body/CTA needs fixing)
2. Recommends specific changes to email body, personalization, and CTA
3. Designs an A/B test plan to validate improvements
Result: Prioritized optimization plan with testable hypotheses
Troubleshooting
Low open rates (<30%)
Cause: Subject lines aren't compelling, or deliverability issues
Solution: Test pain-focused vs. curiosity-based subject lines. Check domain reputation, SPF/DKIM records, and bounce rate. If bounce rate >3%, clean your list first.
High open rate but low reply rate
Cause: Email body doesn't deliver on the subject line promise, CTA is weak or unclear, or personalization is too generic
Solution: Ensure the first sentence connects to the prospect's world. Make the CTA specific ("15 minutes Thursday?") not vague ("let me know if interested"). Increase personalization to Level 3+.
Prospects engaging but not booking meetings
Cause: Too many touchpoints before the ask, or the ask is buried
Solution: Include a clear meeting CTA by Step 3. Use the phone step within 24 hours of an email open. Offer a specific time, not an open question.
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