Sales operating cadence

What is a sales operating cadence?

A sales operating cadence is the fixed schedule of reviews a sales team runs, such as pipeline reviews, forecast meetings and one-on-ones, and what each one is for. It answers two questions for every recurring meeting: when it happens and which decision it exists to make. A good cadence makes management predictable, so sellers can plan their week around it.

Why it matters to a revenue leader

Sellers in a services business split their week between selling, site walks and estimating. A cadence protects that time by putting forecasting, deal review and coaching into known slots. The Lean Enterprise Institute describes a good management system as one built on a cadence of regularly occurring management activities, and the same holds for a sales team. For a CEO or sponsor, a visible cadence is also evidence that the number gets managed between board meetings. The usual failure is drift. One meeting tries to cover everything, and the forecast eats the hour every week.

A fire and life safety company with 12 sellers runs a single team meeting that tries to cover everything. Coaching is always the item that gets cut. The VP moves the forecast into its own short meeting and protects separate coaching time with each seller. Within a quarter, coaching happens as planned and the forecast meeting gets shorter.