When You Get Ghosted, How Do You Handle The Silence?

With Halloween around the corner, it feels fitting to talk about a different kind of ghosting. The kind that happens in business.

We’ve all been there — you send a thoughtful email, maybe after a great meeting, and then… nothing. Days turn into weeks. Silence. You’ve been ghosted.

Even seasoned professionals get stuck in that awkward limbo between interested and ignored.

Several of my clients have told me how frustrated they get when this happens. They expect their contacts to respond as quickly as they would — but that’s not how business works today. Inboxes are overflowing, priorities shift daily, and even with good intentions, your message can disappear into the noise if it’s not urgent.
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So what do you do? How do you stay proactive without sounding desperate?

Here are a few principles I coach my clients on:

• Assume good intentions.
  Don’t default to “they’re not interested.” Most of the time, it’s busyness, not avoidance. People don’t wake up plotting to ignore your email — they just get buried.
  
  
• Vary your follow-up.
  Don’t resend the same nudge. Add value — share an insight, a resource, or a timely update. The goal is to remind them why staying in touch matters.
  
  
• Mind your rhythm.
  Follow up weekly for a couple of weeks, then taper to every few weeks. You’re aiming for steady visibility, not constant noise. Consistency builds trust; urgency erodes it.
  
  
• Keep the pipeline full.
  The best antidote to ghosting is volume. When your outreach is diversified, one quiet contact doesn’t derail you. Think of each relationship like a time-release capsule — you never know when it’ll activate.
  
  
• Don’t take it personally.
  Ghosting happens to everyone. The professionals who win are the ones who keep showing up — calm, professional, and unbothered.
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A full pipeline keeps you grounded. It’s easier to stay patient when your focus is on what’s next, not who hasn’t replied.

Silence isn’t rejection. It’s simply part of the process.

Before we close, it’s worth asking one more question:

How often have you ghosted someone?

Maybe it was a potential vendor, a service provider, or a colleague who followed up after a conversation. It’s easy to forget that reliability works both ways.

I get it. Many of you are busy, and it’s easy to let some replies slip through the cracks. That said, try to be mindful of the impact you might have on others when you don’t get back to them in a reasonable timeframe. A simple response, even a short one, helps maintain trust and respect on both sides.

Relationships are built on follow-through even when you’re the one deciding whether to hire or engage someone else. If you expect others to be responsive and professional, hold yourself to that same standard.

Good business development isn’t just about being visible. It’s about being dependable.

What separates strong business developers from everyone else isn’t how rarely they get ghosted; it’s how calmly and consistently they move forward, and how respectfully they respond when the roles are reversed.

Don’t let ghosting derail you. Keep your pipeline full, follow up with value, and model the same reliability you hope to see in others.