Short answer
A step cadence splits a lead's life in the campaign into steps by age, such as day 1, days 2–7 and days 8–14. Each step has its own number of dials, gap between dials, dial mode (power or preview) and sort order. Leads in earlier steps are dialed first, and leads move on by age even if they weren't reached. Speed to Lead is a ready-made three-step cadence.
A campaign can retry leads in one of two ways:
- Retry rule: every lead the same way, with a number of attempts spaced a fixed time apart.
- Step cadence: leads are worked differently as they age, hardest when they're fresh.
What a step is
Each step has:
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Name | Shown to agents and in reports, such as "P1 · First day" |
| Lead age window | Which days of the lead's life it covers, such as day 1, or days 2–7 |
| Dials | How many times the lead is dialed in this step |
| Cooldown | The minimum gap between two dials in this step |
| Mode | Power: dialed automatically. Preview: the agent sees the lead first. |
| Sort | Inside the step: newest leads first, or least contacted first |
A cadence can have up to 10 steps. Up to 5 can be preview steps with a lead-age window.
How lead age is counted
Day 1 is the day the lead entered the campaign, in the lead's own time zone. If it arrived after calling hours, day 1 is the next day, so a lead that came in at 10pm doesn't lose its first day.
How a lead moves through the steps
- A new lead starts in the first step whose age window holds it.
- Each dial counts toward that step. Once the step's dials are used up, the lead moves to the next step that still has dials.
- When its age passes a step's window, the lead moves on even if it wasn't dialed. Steps are about timing, not just counts.
- When the lead is too old for every step, it leaves the campaign as aged out.
Ordering between steps
Leads in earlier steps come first across the whole campaign. A day-1 lead in P1 beats a day-5 lead in P2, whatever their scores. Inside a step, the queue score and the step's sort decide.
The Speed to Lead preset
| Step | Age | Dials | Cooldown | Mode | Sort |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 · First day | Day 1 | 3 | 30 min | Power | Newest |
| P2 · First week | Days 2–7 | 4 | 2 h | Preview | Least contacted |
| P3 · Second week | Days 8–14 | 7 | About 5 h | Preview | Least contacted |
That's 14 dials over two weeks, front-loaded so day one gets the most effort.
The planner and the 7-dial notice
While you build a cadence, the planner estimates when each step's dials will happen, based on your calling window and cooldowns. It warns you if a step's dials can't fit in its window. It also shows a notice when a lead would get more than 7 dials in its first week. Past that, many leads start ignoring or reporting the number.
Steps and call-frequency limits
Step cadences work alongside call-frequency limits. A daily maximum still caps a step, and a minimum still jumps a lead ahead. If the two disagree, the maximum wins.