Build the 3-Tier Follow-Up Cadence Pack: Call Script, Email, and Nurture Opener

Marketing Academy · Field Work●Events & Experiential Marketing

All projects·From: Event Lead Follow-Up: Turning Badge Scans Into Pipeline

CoreBuild the Asset· 50 minutes

Zendesk

Objective: Produce a complete, ready-to-use follow-up cadence pack, a same-day hot-lead call script, a 24-hour warm-lead email template, and a 48-hour cold-lead nurture opener, each referencing the specific booth conversation instead of a generic template.

You're on the field marketing team at Zendesk, the customer-engagement SaaS company, the morning after a trade show. Sales has the tiered lead list from the booth; now they need the actual words to say and send, written before the scramble starts.

Write all three cadence pieces now, before the show ends, so no rep is staring at a blank email at 9pm trying to remember what a lead said.

Before you start

What you'll need

Free path (everything below is enough to finish)

Google Sheets

FreeDraft and store all three cadence pieces in one shared tab

Free, easy for reps to copy from during the scramble after a show

Paid upgrades (optional, faster/deeper)

HubSpot Marketing Hub(optional)

FreemiumTurn the warm-email and cold-nurture drafts into an automated sequence

Automates the 24h and 48h send timing instead of relying on a rep to remember

The process

3 steps

Step 01 of 03

Same-day call script for hot leads

Hot leads asked about pricing, timeline, or a specific integration, or a decision-maker stayed 5+ minutes. The lesson says these go to sales same-day, full stop.

A Hot lead asked specifically about SSO setup and a 2-seat pilot. Write the opening 3 lines of the same-day call script a rep would actually read from.

Google Sheets— Draft the script in a shared 'Cadence Pack' tab so every rep pulls from the same source.

Procedure

Open with the specific thing the lead asked about at the booth, not 'hi, following up from the show'
State the one next step you're proposing (a 15-minute pilot-scoping call)
Write a fallback line for voicemail that still references the specific conversation
Save the script in the shared tab labeled 'Hot: Call Script'

Sample output

HOT CALL SCRIPT
'Hi [Name], this is [Rep] from Zendesk, we spoke yesterday at [Show] about SSO setup for your support team.'
'You mentioned wanting to pilot with 2 seats, I'd like to set up a 15-minute call this week to scope that out.'
Voicemail fallback: 'I'll follow up by email today with the SSO documentation you asked about, and a couple of times that could work for a quick call.'

Healthy

The first line names the specific thing the lead asked about, so they remember the conversation instead of wondering who's calling.

Unhealthy

A script that opens with 'I wanted to follow up from the conference' and could apply to any of the 140 leads captured.

What this means

Specificity is what makes a same-day call feel like a continuation of a real conversation instead of a cold call with extra steps.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
The call script is generic enough to use on any lead	Add a mandatory [specific ask/topic] field to the script template	5 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 02 of 03

24-hour personalized email for warm leads

Warm leads showed genuine interest with no urgency signal. The lesson's cadence puts these on a personal email inside 24 hours, referencing the specific booth conversation.

A Warm lead liked the demo but asked no pricing questions. Write the subject line and first two sentences of the 24-hour warm-lead email.

Google Sheets— Draft alongside the call script in the same 'Cadence Pack' tab, labeled 'Warm: Email Template.'

Procedure

Write a subject line that references the show and the specific thing demoed, not 'Great meeting you'
Open the email by naming the exact feature or workflow the lead responded to in the demo
Offer one low-friction next step (a recorded walkthrough, not a sales call) since there's no urgency signal yet
Save the template in the shared tab

Sample output

WARM EMAIL TEMPLATE
Subject: The AI ticket-routing demo from [Show], plus the workflow you asked about
'Hi [Name], great talking with you at [Show], you had good questions about how the AI routing handles priority tickets.'
'I put together a 4-minute walkthrough of that exact workflow, no meeting required, take a look when you have a minute.'

Healthy

The email references the specific feature discussed and offers a low-friction next step matching 'interested but no urgency.'

Unhealthy

Sending the Warm lead the same 'let's schedule a demo' CTA meant for Hot leads, mismatching the ask to the actual buying signal.

What this means

Warm leads need proof and ease, not a sales push. Matching the CTA to the tier is what keeps the 24-hour email from feeling pushy.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Warm-lead emails ask for a sales call with no lower-friction option offered first	Swap the CTA to a recorded walkthrough or one-pager, not a meeting request	5 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Step 03 of 03

48-hour nurture-sequence opener for cold leads

The lesson's whole premise is that unscored, unsorted contacts overwhelm whoever inherits them and simply expire. Cold leads need an automated opener, not a rep's attention, or they become next year's bag of business cards.

A Cold lead grabbed swag with no real fit signal. Write the opening line of the 48-hour nurture email that keeps them in the pipeline without wasting a rep's time.

Google Sheets— Draft as the third and final entry in the shared 'Cadence Pack' tab, labeled 'Cold: Nurture Opener.'

Procedure

Write an opener that's honest about the low-touch context: a resource, not a pitch
Point to one piece of educational content, not a demo request
Set the entry trigger explicitly (auto-enrolled 48 hours after the show, not manually sent)
Save the opener in the shared tab so this list never sits unsorted in a spreadsheet again

Sample output

COLD NURTURE OPENER (auto-enrolled +48h)
Subject: The guide we handed out at [Show], in case the line was too long to grab one
'Hi [Name], thanks for stopping by our booth at [Show]. Here's the same customer-support benchmarks guide we were handing out, no strings attached.'
CTA: a link to the guide only, no meeting request.

Healthy

Cold leads get automatically enrolled in a low-touch sequence within 48 hours instead of sitting in a spreadsheet until the next show.

Unhealthy

Cold leads are exported to a CSV and never touched again, which is exactly the 80%-never-followed-up failure the lesson opens with.

What this means

The Cold tier isn't a discard pile, it's the tier most likely to be abandoned entirely, which is why it needs its own pre-written, automated opener.

So what do I do about it?

Symptom	Action	Effort
Cold-tier rows have no follow-up plan at all	Auto-enroll every Cold row into the nurture opener the moment scoring is done	5 min

YouYou can do this yourself, no engineering access required.

Final deliverable

A complete 3-tier follow-up cadence pack (hot call script, warm email template, cold nurture opener), ready to copy into a CRM's sequence tool.

See a reference example

Sample output

Slack, DevConf follow-up cadence pack (excerpt)

HOT CALL SCRIPT
'Hi [Name], this is [Rep] from Slack, you asked about Enterprise Grid rollout timelines at DevConf yesterday.'

WARM EMAIL, Subject: The workflow builder demo from DevConf
'You had good questions about the approval-chain automation, here's a 3-minute walkthrough of exactly that.'

COLD NURTURE, Subject: The team-collaboration checklist from our DevConf booth
'Thanks for stopping by, here's the same checklist, no meeting required.'

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

All three cadence pieces reference a specific, concrete detail rather than generic show language
The CTA in each piece matches its tier's urgency level (call, low-friction email, resource-only nurture)
The cold nurture piece is written to auto-enroll, not to depend on a rep remembering to send it