Episode 1079: Don’t reply to yourself
If someone hasn’t replied to your message, one follow-up is fair. After that, you’re not messaging them anymore. You’re replying to yourself.
A conversation with nobody but yourself
Inboxes are full of this pattern. Someone reaches out, gets no response, and keeps going anyway. “What about this? What about that?” It carries on and on, and technically every one of those messages is a reply, just not to the other person. It’s a reply to their own last message, because the recipient never said a word.
Follow-up matters. Not giving up matters. But there’s a point where persistence stops being useful and starts being noise nobody asked for.
Where the line actually sits
One message with no response, fair enough, send a follow-up. Two messages, still reasonable. A thirteen message chain to someone who has said absolutely nothing back is a different thing entirely. At that point you’re not selling, you’re just talking at someone who’s already decided not to engage.
Ask yourself honestly. Have you ever ignored someone a dozen times and then bought from them on the thirteenth message? Almost certainly not. So why would anyone else behave differently?
Put that energy somewhere it can actually work
Every message sent into silence is time and energy that could go toward a conversation that’s actually happening. Use your common sense. If someone’s gone quiet after a fair attempt or two, it’s usually a clear enough answer.
How long is the longest chain of unanswered messages you’ve ever sent someone?
Take Action
Go through your outreach history and find any thread where you’ve sent three or more messages without a single reply. Stop messaging that person and redirect the time to a new, warmer conversation instead.
See Also
