Designs multi-channel outbound cadences with timing, A/B testing, and content. Use when outbound sequences getting low reply rates, unsure how many touchpoints or what spacing to use, cadence emails sound generic, prospects ignoring calls, A/B tests not moving the needle, sequence performance plateauing, or not sure which channels to include in outreach. Do NOT use for marketing cold email (use /cold-email), automated email flows (use /email-sequence), or general Salesloft platform help (use /sales-salesloft).
Designs multi-channel outbound cadences with timing, A/B testing, and content. Use when outbound sequences getting low reply rates, unsure how many touchpoints or what spacing to use, cadence emails sound generic, prospects ignoring calls, A/B tests not moving the needle, sequence performance plateauing, or not sure which channels to include in outreach. Do NOT use for marketing cold email (use /cold-email), automated email flows (use /email-sequence), or general Salesloft platform help (use /sales-salesloft).
argument-hint
[describe campaign goal, target persona, channels, and constraints]
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)
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
Email
Intro email (A/B subject lines)
Personalization Level 3+
1
2
LinkedIn
Profile view + connection request
Same day as email
3
3
Phone
Call attempt #1 + voicemail
Reference email
4
4
Email
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)
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
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-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.md with 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:
Designs a 14-step cadence architecture table with channel mixing
Writes full email copy with A/B subject lines, call scripts with voicemail, LinkedIn messages
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:
Diagnoses the gap (subject lines work, body/CTA needs fixing)
Recommends specific changes to email body, personalization, and CTA
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.
