Salesforce Cadences and Gmail sequences both send a planned series of emails and follow-ups, but your team works in a different place. Cadences are part of Salesforce Sales Engagement: people work through a to-do queue inside Salesforce, and an admin builds and assigns the steps. It costs $50 per user a month as an add-on, or comes included in Unlimited and Agentforce 1 Sales editions. Gmail sequences, like Mixmax, run from the inbox people already use: they write the sequence, follow-ups send from their own Gmail and stop when someone replies, and everything logs to Salesforce. Pick Cadences if your team already works all day inside Salesforce. Pick a Gmail sequence tool if they live in Gmail.
Here’s how each works, what it costs to run, and how to choose.
What Salesforce Cadences are
A cadence is a list of steps for each person you’re trying to reach, built in Salesforce’s Cadence Builder. Step types include sending an email, sending an automated email, making a call, creating a task, a LinkedIn message or connection request, and a screen flow. (Salesforce Help: considerations for Sales Engagement cadences)
Cadences can branch. In Cadence Builder 2.0, a cadence has a main track plus tracks for positive and negative outcomes, so a reply or a call result can move someone to a different path. (Salesforce Help: Cadence Builder 2.0)
Each day, people work their steps from the Work Queue in Salesforce. The Work Queue can also appear in the Salesforce panel inside Gmail, though call steps don’t work there.
Cadences used to be called High Velocity Sales. Salesforce now sells them as Sales Engagement. (Salesforce: Sales Engagement pricing)
What it takes to run Cadences
Cost. Sales Engagement is $50 per user a month, billed yearly, as an add-on. It’s included in Unlimited and Agentforce 1 Sales editions. (Salesforce: Sales Engagement pricing) Professional Edition can only use the basic version, with quick cadences.
Setup. Salesforce’s own setup steps start with turning on Sales Engagement and setting up Einstein Activity Capture. Then an admin assigns permission sets (cadence creators, users, quick cadence creators and so on), sets up email sending and maps call outcomes if you want branching. Setup needs the Customize Application and Modify All Data permissions. (Salesforce Help: set up Sales Engagement, assign permissions)
Sending. Emails can go through Salesforce, which has a daily org-wide limit (usually 5,000), or through Gmail using “Send through External Email Services,” which Salesforce recommends. Each person can send up to 1,000 automated emails a day on the full license, or 100 on the basic one. (Salesforce Help: email considerations)
Limits to know:
- Cadences work on leads, contacts and person accounts only.
- Up to 100 steps per cadence.
- Up to 200 people added at once (20 from an opportunity).
- Up to 500,000 active people in cadences per org.
- Predefined email steps use Lightning email templates.
(Salesforce Help: considerations for Sales Engagement cadences)
None of this is a problem for a team with a Salesforce admin and people who already spend the day in Salesforce. It’s a lot for a team that mostly works from Gmail and opens Salesforce to update a record.
What a sequence in Gmail looks like
Mixmax is a lightweight outreach tool inside Gmail that syncs with Salesforce. A sequence is the email and the follow-ups you’d write anyway, set up once:
- Write the email and the follow-ups in Gmail, and choose how many days to wait between them.
- Add people from Salesforce, from a CSV, or one at a time from an email you’re already writing.
- Each follow-up sends from your own Gmail as a reply in the same thread.
- When someone replies, their follow-ups stop. Everyone else carries on.
- It all logs to Salesforce: emails, replies, opens and clicks on the record, and meetings booked through Mixmax. If someone isn’t in Salesforce yet, Mixmax can create them as a lead or a contact.
Salesforce can start a sequence too. A rule can add a new lead to a welcome sequence, or add a contact to a sequence when an opportunity changes stage. (Mixmax + Salesforce)
Each person can share their sequences and templates with the rest of the team, so a good follow-up written once gets used by everyone.
Salesforce Cadences vs. Mixmax sequences, side by side
| Salesforce Cadences | Mixmax sequences | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your team works | The Work Queue in Salesforce | Gmail |
| Who builds the steps | Usually an admin or cadence creator | Anyone on the team |
| Email, then follow-ups that stop on reply | Yes | Yes |
| Call and LinkedIn steps | Yes | Email-first. Calling is sold separately |
| Branching on outcomes | Yes, with positive and negative tracks | Rules that act on Salesforce changes |
| Logs to Salesforce | Yes, it lives there | Yes, automatically |
| Price | $50 per user a month, or included in Unlimited and Agentforce 1 Sales | Separate plans, with a free plan (pricing) |
| Setup | Admin turns on Sales Engagement and Einstein Activity Capture, assigns permission sets | Connect Gmail and Salesforce from settings |
Which one is right for you?
- Cadences: your team already works inside Salesforce all day, you have an admin to build and maintain cadences, you need call and LinkedIn steps in one queue, or your edition already includes Sales Engagement.
- Mixmax: your team lives in Gmail, the work is mostly email and follow-ups, and you want each person to set up their own sequences while Salesforce stays up to date.
If your edition includes Cadences and nobody uses them, that’s usually the sign. People keep working from their inbox, and the follow-ups that slip are the ones that would have needed a trip into Salesforce.
Frequently asked questions
What are Salesforce Cadences?
A Salesforce Sales Engagement feature for planned outreach. You build a series of steps (emails, calls, tasks, LinkedIn messages) and people work through them from a queue inside Salesforce.
How much do Salesforce Cadences cost?
Sales Engagement is $50 per user a month, billed yearly, as an add-on. It’s included in Unlimited and Agentforce 1 Sales editions.
Can Salesforce Cadences send from Gmail?
Yes. An admin can set Sales Engagement to send through Gmail. People still manage their steps from the Work Queue in Salesforce, which can also show in the Salesforce panel in Gmail.
Is Salesforce Sales Engagement the same as High Velocity Sales?
Yes. Salesforce renamed High Velocity Sales to Sales Engagement.
Do Mixmax sequences log to Salesforce?
Yes. Emails, replies, opens and clicks log to the Salesforce record automatically, and meetings booked through Mixmax log too.
Can I use Mixmax and Salesforce Cadences together?
You can, but most teams pick one place to run follow-ups so the same person doesn’t get two series of emails.
The next step
Ask your team where they actually spend the day. If the answer is Gmail, try Mixmax free with your Google account, connect Salesforce, and send your first sequence to a few people from a Salesforce list.
Keep reading: Explore more on Mixmax sequences.
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