Let’s paint a familiar scenario. New leads come in. There’s excitement. But then the questions come in. What’s the strategy? Call first? Email? Wait three days, a week? What happens after a tactic runs cold?
For as long as I can remember, salespeople have been handed a bunch of leads, expected to devise a complex strategy for each, and then recalled to the order of a touch to each lead. It can be tiresome, unproductive, and frankly, a poor use of skill.
What if you could identify the best components of your sales strategy and automate it? The sales conversation as such wouldn’t be automated, but the various steps in the strategy could be.
That’s where Zoho CRM Cadence comes in. It takes your most effective sales sequences, automates the dull and repetitive aspects of it, and gives your sales team back their most valuable resource: time. Time to build relationships and close those all-important deals.
What is a Sales Cadence, really? (And Why You Need One)
Think of a cadence, not as a clunky robot, but as a smart GPS for your sales process.
You determine a destination with a GPS (a qualified conversation), but it doesn’t just offer the best route; it maps every turn you need to make (call, email, wait, LinkedIn connect, etc.). If you hit a snag (the lead is unresponsive), it doesn’t just sit idly; it changes the route.
Without a sales cadence, you are just driving around, hoping to get to your destination.
In Zoho CRM, a defined cadence addresses three major issues:
- Every rep operates inconsistently. Some are overly aggressive; others are too passive. There is no standard for what “good” outreach is.
- Reps trying to “figure out what to do next” with each lead, as opposed to selling, leads to inefficient use of mental energy.
- Lost selling opportunities are the result of sloppy follow-through leading to qualified leads going cold, unassigned tasks, and missed scheduled actions.
"Stop guessing and start predicting. Your sales pipeline holds the key to the future—we'll show you how to unlock it."
With Cadence, you’re able to set up a multi-step, multi-channel sequence that unfolds across various activities for a set of your leads or contacts. When you place a person into a cadence, the system automatically walks the rep through the ensuing steps. In practice, that looks like this.
Building Your Sequence: The “Choreography” of Outreach
Suppose you want to reach out to new leads you acquired from a webinar. You could create a sequence ‘Webinar Follow-Up’, as below:
- Day 1. The lead gets an automated personalized email mentioning the webinar they attended. The rep’s calendar gets a task to “Call lead” for the next day.
- Day 2. The rep makes the call. If they connect, the sequence ends, and the deal moves to the next stage. If they do not connect, the rep records the “No reply” CRM status, and the sequence moves to the next step automatically.
- Day 4. The system prompts the rep to send a connection request to the lead’s LinkedIn account, again with a custom note.
- Day 7. The sequence ends with a final, value email – perhaps one joined with a relevant case study.
The rep does not have to remember the next sequence step. The system tells them, which makes the entire sequence pre-built.
Key Features That Make It Powerful:
- Sequence Flexibility: Emails, Calls, and LinkedIn Tasks as Outreach. The sequence includes social tasks like LinkedIn to mimic communication as it occurs in real life.
- Smart Automation: The cadence isn’t dumb. It can pivot based on the lead’s actions. If a lead replies to an email, the cadence can be set to automatically pause, preventing an awkward automated follow-up when a real conversation has started.
- Personalization at Scale: The automated emails aren’t generic blasts. You can use Zoho’s merge tags (like {Contact, First, Name}) to personalize them, making each touch feel human and relevant.
- Centralized Control: Managers can build and approve “best practice” cadences for the entire team. This is how you scale your top performer’s secret sauce across everyone.
The Real-World Impact: What Changes for Your Team
Adopting Cadence isn’t just about using a new feature; it’s about upgrading your entire sales operation.
For Sales Reps:
- Clarity: They start each day with a clear task list. The guesswork is gone. They know exactly who to contact and what to do.
- Focus: Less time planning means more time talking to prospects.
- Confidence comes from executing a proven strategy rather than just winging it.
For Sales Managers:
- Consistency: Finally, every lead is receiving your company’s A-game. You have consistency, and it’s measurable.
- Visibility: You have the ability to see which cadences are the most successful. Is the “5-Step Nurture” cadence getting more connections than the “3-Step Aggressive” cadence? You will know.
Coaching:
If a rep is struggling, you can see the performance data. If they are failing on a call step, you will know exactly where to focus your coaching to see the rebounding effort you want.
Getting Started with Cadence.
- Don’t boil the ocean.
- Identify a Common Scenario: Choose a common process, such as following up on inbound demo requests, re-engaging cold leads, or scanning for a lead.
- Map your Best Approach: Write down the ideal sequence your best rep would use. How many touches and how many days? Which channels will be used?
- Build Your First Cadence: Go to the Cadence module in Zoho CRM to build that sequence. Automation will be a mix of emails and user tasks.
- Train Your Team: Provide the training and emphasize that it’s a tool to help, not to micromanage.
- Measure and Adjust: Review the analytics after a month. Identify points where leads are falling off, and adjust your sequence.
The Bottom Line
Sales involves understanding people and building relationships, and that requires creative ability and compassion. Knowing and following a step-by-step plan and sticking to a schedule shows the scientific side of sales.
Zoho CRM Cadence takes care of the automation and the ‘non-creative’ work so that your sales professionals can work on the ‘creative’ side of sales.
It ensures that every lead is remembered and every prospect is given a polished outreach experience. You can switch from blindfolded guessing to knowing and deliberate action.
