Key takeaways
- Start with a dense first week, then widen the gaps between touches.
- Give each channel a job: email carries detail, LinkedIn builds familiarity, the phone gets a quick answer.
- Every touch needs a new reason to reply, not a reminder that you wrote before.
- Slow the pace and raise the substance for senior or high-value buyers.
How many touches should a multi-channel sequence have
Plan for eight to ten touches as a starting point, then cut or add based on what your replies tell you. Fewer than five gives a busy buyer few chances to notice you, while more than a dozen starts to feel like pressure rather than persistence.
The number matters less than whether each touch earns its place. If you cannot write a distinct reason for the ninth message, stop at eight.
How far apart should the touches be
Space touches one or two working days apart in the first week, then three to five days apart after that. The early pace catches the buyer while your first message is still fresh; the wider gaps later show patience and leave room for them to come back to you.
Count working days in the buyer's time zone, not yours, and pause around public holidays in their country. A touch that lands at 2am local time or on a bank holiday is wasted.
Which channel should come first
Lead with email for most B2B buyers, because it carries the most context and can be read when it suits them. Follow with a LinkedIn connection request that has no pitch in it, so your name is familiar when the second email arrives.
Change the order when the buyer's habits call for it. Start on LinkedIn when you share a connection or the buyer posts often, and start with a call for roles that live on the phone, such as field sales leaders or operations managers.
How should the cadence change for different buyers
Adjust the cadence to the buyer's seniority, the size of the deal and how the lead reached you. Senior executives get fewer touches with longer gaps and more substance in each; founders of small companies often respond to a faster, shorter run.
Inbound leads who asked for information need a compressed cadence: two or three touches within the first few days, while the interest is real. Existing customers and past opportunities need a lighter rhythm built around something new to share.
When should you stop or pause a sequence
Stop the sequence the moment the buyer replies, whatever the reply says, and switch to a real conversation. Pause on an out-of-office and restart after the return date, remove the contact on a bounce, and honour every opt-out straight away.
When the sequence ends without a reply, move the contact to a slower nurture track with a useful check-in a quarter later. Silence often means bad timing, not a final no.
An illustrative three-week multi-channel cadence
A starting point for cold outbound to a mid-level buyer; adjust the days and channels to your market.
| Channel | Purpose of the touch | |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Email and LinkedIn | The main reason you are reaching out, plus a connection request with no pitch |
| Day 3 | Phone | A short call; leave a voicemail that points to the email |
| Day 5 | One new piece of evidence, such as a relevant example or a sharp question | |
| Day 8 | A message tied to something the buyer posted or their company announced | |
| Day 12 | A different angle, for example a cost or risk the buyer may not have counted | |
| Day 16 | Phone | A second call at a different time of day |
| Day 21 | A brief closing note that leaves the door open for later |
Illustrative only: a starting point to test, not a measured result.
Where Pebbles Ai fits
- CapabilityOutreach contentBuild an email or LinkedIn campaign of up to seven touches with a personality for each piece. Emails are saved as drafts in your connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox and LinkedIn messages are drafted for you to send, so you run the cadence yourself rather than as an automated sequence.
- CapabilitySocialboxSocialbox brings your LinkedIn chats into one inbox beside WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, so the LinkedIn touches and their replies sit in one place. You write every message yourself.
Common questions
Should I call before or after the first email?
After, in most cases. A call a day or two after the first email gives you something to refer to, so the voicemail can be short and useful.
Is it acceptable to send touches at the weekend?
For B2B buyers it is usually better not to. Keep touches to the buyer's working days and local business hours, so each one arrives when they are likely to deal with it.
Should every prospect get the same cadence?
No. Keep one default per segment, then adjust it for seniority, deal size and how the lead arrived. A single cadence for everyone is easy to run but fits nobody well.
About this page. Written by the Pebbles Ai team for people who run sales, marketing and growth. Last updated .
