How to follow up when a prospect goes quiet
Silence usually means busy, not no. The data on this is consistent: most replies come after the third to fifth touch, yet most sellers stop after one or two.
Three rules keep no-response follow-ups effective. First, never guilt-trip — "just bumping this" and "did you see my last email?" make the reply feel like an apology. Second, make each touch add something: a resource, a relevant result, a new angle on their problem. Third, keep shortening — by the fourth touch, two sentences is plenty.
When it's genuinely over, send a breakup email. It closes the loop professionally, and paradoxically it gets more replies than any other follow-up — people respond to endings.