A prospect agreed to take a meeting and then stopped responding. How do I get them to reply?

Leave the meeting out of your next email. Sales trainer Josh Hedaya of Connection Selling teaches one move for this: name the problem the prospect told you about, in their own words, and ask one question with two doors. Is that still something you're working on, or did you solve it? Book the meeting once they answer.

That is the short answer. Below is the follow-up method Josh teaches, adapted for the moment before the first meeting: what to write, what to leave out, and the one-line email for when nothing else works. If your prospect went quiet after you sent a proposal, that is a different spot, and Josh covers it in A prospect ghosted me after I sent the proposal. What should I do next?

Why prospects say yes to a meeting and then disappear

You got them on the phone. They had a problem. They said, "Sure, let's set something up." Then nothing. No reply to the invite, no reply to your email, maybe not even a reply on the day.

Here is what is usually going on, in Josh's terms:

• The yes never made it onto their calendar. Josh's first rule for every stage of a deal is a next-step calendar commitment, in their calendar, accepted by them. A spoken yes with no accepted invite is the easiest thing in the world to let slide.
• Your follow-up is about your meeting. They agreed to talk about their problem. By the time you write, you are writing about your calendar. Josh's method has one rule above all the others: ask about the buyer's problem, never about the deal, the calendar or the product. A question about their own situation is easy to answer. A question about your meeting is a chore.
• They may barely remember the call. Josh tells sellers that buyers in long sales cycles won't remember everything you talked about, "but they will remember how you made them feel." On cold calls he is blunter: wait a month and "he won't even remember that you called him."
• Silence is easier than no. Josh teaches that when buyers don't feel comfortable telling you what is really going on, they give you a safe answer or no answer at all. Not replying is the safest answer there is.

How to get them to reply: 6 steps

1. Find what they said yes to

   Before you write a word, go back to your notes from the call. What problem made them agree to meet? Write it down in their words. When a seller Josh coaches asked him what email to send a buyer who had gone quiet, his first question back was: "What's the problem that he was trying to solve?"

   Then listen for the want under the facts. Buyers state facts. The want sits underneath. Josh's example: "I only need to sharpen my knives once a month and I'm doing it weekly" really means they want their time back. Name that want once, in plain words, as something they were hoping for. Never as a diagnosis, and never as a feeling they didn't say.

2. Try the phone first

   Call before you email. If you get voicemail, one short line at the top of your email can say you tried. Write that line only when it is true.

3. Write the two-door email

   Josh's follow-up emails follow the same order nearly every time. A greeting with their first name. An honest line about how long it has been, if it has been a while. The pivot word, "I'm curious." Their situation, written as still in progress, in their words. Then the two-door question. Sign off with your first name only.

   Here is how that looks for a prospect who agreed to meet and went quiet:

   Hi [Name],

   When we spoke a couple of weeks ago, you mentioned your team was rebuilding the same report by hand every week, and you were hoping to get that time back.

   I'm curious, is that still on your plate, or did you find a way to fix it?

   Cheers,

   Josh

   Look at what it leaves out. No "are we still on?" No calendar link. No new time slots. No product. Josh teaches that writing is for their problem, their date and one question. The meeting ask, the plan and the product belong on a call, once they have answered you.

4. Hand them back their own deadline

   If they mentioned a date on the call, use it. A contract that renews in January, a busy season, a board meeting next month. Josh's method hands the buyer back their own calendar, so use their date and leave yours out. And keep it to one situation, the one they told you about. A list of possible problems reads like a pitch.

5. Give a busy buyer room, then send the nuclear email

   Sometimes the silence has an obvious reason. When a seller told Josh her buyer's company was in the middle of big public news, his read was simple: "So he's busy. Give him a call in 2 weeks."

   Still nothing after two or three real attempts by phone and email? That is when Josh reaches for the one he calls the nuclear option:

   Hi [Name], I tried you a few times, but haven't heard back....

   Let me know where we go from here.

   Nothing comes after it. No thanks, no signature. In Josh's words, there's "no social etiquette in just ghosting," and the email quietly points that out. It also gives the buyer something silence never does: an easy way to tell you no. The answers range from "we decided to go another way" to "I got slammed with other stuff" to "it's still in the queue." One rule from the method: never send it to a friend or a personal contact.

6. When they answer, book it on the spot

   If they are still interested, ask for the meeting and send the calendar invite right then, so it lands on their calendar while they are paying attention. Then make sure they accept it. And on the next first call, close the gap before you hang up. Josh coaches sellers to drop "I'll follow up" and "I'll check in" and ask, "What are helpful next steps for you?" Then put the meeting on their calendar while you are still talking.

What NOT to send

Josh has a short list of words he never writes in a follow-up: "just following up," "just checking in," "circling back," "touching base" and "any questions?" Josh's reason is the same for every one of them: it says "I want something from you."

"Just confirming we're still on" belongs to the same family. It asks about your meeting, leaves their problem out, and gives the buyer nothing to answer except yes, no or silence.

A real example from a coaching session

An agency owner Josh was coaching one-on-one had a first meeting booked with a prospect he had never met. As the day got closer, he heard nothing. "I hadn't heard from this guy," he told Josh. "I had no idea who he is." An hour before the meeting he wrote, "Hey, I'm just confirming. We're still on." No reply. Five minutes before the call, one came back: "confirming, we're good."

So the meeting happened. The prospect started off interested and talked for about 20 minutes about his business. He told the agency owner he was a one-man show, and that he was hiring someone to take over marketing in about 90 days. The agency owner decided it was time to show his deck. He watched the prospect start checking his email. The prospect finished the call with, "Will you send me that deck?"

Afterward, the agency owner said of the prospect: "he does have a problem... but I'm not sure he's ready to solve it actually."

That is the lesson in the silence before the meeting. The confirmation email asked about the meeting, so the prospect answered about the meeting, five minutes out, in three words. Nothing in that exchange touched the reason he had agreed to talk. Josh's method would have put the prospect's own problem in that email, in his own words, so the first thing he read from the seller was about his business. The recording does not show what happened with this prospect after the call.

FAQ

Should I send a "just confirming" email before the meeting?

Josh's method says to write about the buyer's problem, never the calendar. If you want to reach out before a meeting, remind them of the problem they told you about, in their words, and ask a question about it. It reminds them why they said yes, and it is easy to answer.

How many times should I follow up before I give up?

Josh teaches the nuclear email after about the second or third attempt, once you have called and emailed over a stretch of time with no reply. It almost always gets an answer, and even a no tells you where you stand.

Should I just stop reaching out?

Not yet. A seller asked Josh exactly that about a quiet buyer. His answer was to call again in two weeks, because the buyer was busy. If you have already tried a few times, send the nuclear email. Then you know.

Should I put a calendar link or new times in my follow-up email?

Leave them out. In Josh's method, the email carries their problem, their date and one question. Once they reply and say it is still a priority, ask for the meeting and send the invite right then.

Why would someone agree to a meeting and then go silent?

Usually because saying no feels harder than saying nothing. Josh teaches that when buyers don't feel comfortable telling you what is really going on, silence is the safe option. An email about their own problem, with two easy doors, makes answering simple.

If you want more of the follow-up emails Josh uses, his free guide, Secrets of B2B Follow-Up, has them.