Everybody gets ghosted in sales. It comes with the territory. But too many founders blame the prospect instead of looking inward at their own sales process. Because the reality is that most ghosting situations are actually opportunities to reflect on something you’ve missed.
In this article, I’ll share exactly how to deal with being ghosted in sales, the warning signs to watch for, and most importantly, how to turn these situations into learning opportunities that improve your entire sales process.
Why being ghosted is actually a sales process problem
Let me start with something that might sting a bit: being ghosted often comes from crap sales process. I know that sounds harsh, but hear me out. When someone ghosts you, it’s usually because:
- They haven’t seen the value
- They’re not engaged with your solution
- They couldn’t get the internal buy-in
- They’re not the actual decision maker
All of these issues lead to ghosting, and they all stem from gaps in your sales process.
The truth is, especially in the UK where I’m based, people don’t like being transparent about the lay of the land. People don’t like to say they couldn’t make that decision or they couldn’t get the internal buy-in, so it’s easier just to ignore you. No one wants to admit that they couldn’t do that internal selling job.
Think about it like this: it’s like going into a shop, picking something up that you like, and then only afterwards asking the price. They tell you it’s 500 quid when you thought it was going to be 100 quid. In your head, you’re like “oh fuck, I wasn’t expecting that.” You don’t want to say you can’t afford it, so it’s easier to say “thank you very much” and just walk out. You’ve effectively ghosted that shop person because you haven’t seen the value because the perceived value to you wasn’t worth that 500 quid.
It’s the same thing with B2B sales. It’s easier for prospects to go quiet rather than say they can’t afford it or they couldn’t get the business case approved.
The real reason you’re getting ghosted
I worked with two founders about 18 months ago who were getting ghosted about 90% of the time after their discovery meeting.
Want to know why? They were meeting the wrong person.
The ultimate decision maker was CMOs, but they were speaking to marketing managers. These marketing managers couldn’t make the decision internally without the CMO, and they weren’t able to do a good enough job internally to sell this thing.
Here’s what was happening:
- The founders were doing a quick discovery with the marketing manager
- They were then flinging a proposal at this wrong person
- The marketing manager would go to the CMO internally and say, “Hey, I’ve got this thing I’ve looked at, it’s 50 grand a year”
- The CMO would basically say “heck no” because they weren’t able to sell the ROI and business case internally
- Then the easiest thing for the marketing manager to do was just go quiet
How I turned a ghosting situation into a £250k deal
I was working with a big multinational company with multi-billion turnover. We prospected to someone with a director title, had a meeting with this lady, and after the meeting she just went completely quiet.
Obviously when you’re selling to a massive company, they have multiple directors, multiple decision makers, and multiple business units. Our contact went quiet, so we started again.
Here’s what we did:
- We didn’t give up on the entire company – just because one person doesn’t engage or says no doesn’t mean the whole company has told you no
- We mapped out the account better – we looked inwards and thought, okay, maybe this person isn’t the right person
- We used the information we’d already gathered – we had a meeting with her, and she did tell us some really key information
- We went to the real big dog – we found them on LinkedIn and prospected to that person
Our message was basically: “Hey, big dog, we spoke to someone in your team. We know these problems. We know you’re wasting this much time. We know this is a massive inefficiency. This is why you need to spend 30 minutes with us.”
We got the meeting with that person, and it ended up being a £250K ARR deal by engaging the right person. Just because that one person in that company went quiet, there were multiple people we could sell to.
The early warning signs someone will ghost you
Here are the telltale signs that someone is likely to ghost you:
Red Flag #1: Vague Responses
- High-level responses during discovery
- Walls being put up
- Very dismissive attitude
- Not giving you concrete details about their pain points
Red Flag #2: Pushing for Demos and Pricing
- Getting on a call and immediately saying “I need to see the demo”
- “Tell me about your pricing” before understanding the problem
- This feels like fishing exercises from inexperienced buyers
Red Flag #3: Meeting Management Issues
- Canceling meetings last minute
- Postponing conversations repeatedly
- “Can we catch up in a couple weeks time?” and then doing it again
Red Flag #4: Blocking Access to Senior Stakeholders
When you say “normally when we engage with these processes, we need to speak to the CMO,” and there’s instant blockage:
- “No, no, she won’t want to see it”
- “He won’t want to see it”
- “You have to go through me”
- “You can’t speak to that person”
How to improve your sales process to prevent ghosting
The best way to deal with ghosting is to look at your internal process and see what else you could have done to keep this person engaged. They took the meeting with you, they were engaged at that point, they had the meeting with you, and now they’ve gone quiet.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What could we have done on that first call to get them more excited?
- How could we have told a better story?
- What could we have done to find more pain?
- How could we have brought more senior people into the conversation earlier?
When to keep chasing vs when to walk away
This is a difficult one, but you want to track how old your opportunity is.
If you opened an opportunity on July 1st, had the meeting, you’re looking for signs of the velocity of the opportunity moving along. The longer an opportunity doesn’t move along processes, the longer it goes quiet, it loses that momentum.
- Meeting on July 1st
- Follow-up a couple of days later
- You’ve chased three or four times with no commitment
- Suddenly it’s the end of July and nothing’s really happened
At that point, nothing’s going to really change. Your relationship there is fizzling away. That’s your opportunity to strike while you’re still kind of warm, but go for different contacts.
How to not take ghosting personally
It’s not personal. No one’s intentionally trying to be annoying. The reality is they got pushed back internally, they got told no, they couldn’t find the budget, they didn’t see the value.
It’s easier just to ignore someone than give an answer sometimes, especially when that person then wants to know more detail about the answer you gave them. So, it’s easier just to ghost them. They know you’re going to send three or four emails chasing, but then you’re going to give up. It’s just easy just to go quiet.
- Don’t take it personally – the other person isn’t trying to be a dick about it
- We’ve all probably ghosted someone in some way, shape, or form in our lives
- See it as an opportunity to get better
- Take the learnings and look at your internal process
- Use it as an opportunity to ask the hard-hitting questions
The approach founders need to have
It’s nothing personal, just keep going. You’re not going to sell to everybody.
Some people are going to waste your time. Some people were never an opportunity in the first place. Sometimes you had a meeting with someone you shouldn’t have been speaking to anyway.
Just keep going. Keep the momentum going. See it as a way to get sharper, get better, tell better stories, do better discovery, do better qualification, bring senior people in earlier. Take it as a learning opportunity and bounce back stronger.
Just because one person doesn’t engage or says no, that doesn’t mean the entire company has told you no. One person ghosted you? Fine, you’ll carry on. Start again, map out the account better, and use the information you gathered to approach the right people.
FAQ: Common questions about being ghosted in sales
Q: How many times should I follow up before giving up? A: I typically recommend 3-4 follow-ups over 3-4 weeks. If there’s no response after that, it’s time to either try a different contact at the company or move on entirely.
Q: What’s the best way to re-engage someone who has gone quiet? A: Be brutally honest. Reference the specific pain points they mentioned in your original meeting and ask if priorities have changed. This shows you were listening and gives them an easy way to respond.
Q: Should I try to contact other people at the company if one person ghosts me? A: Absolutely. Just because one person goes quiet doesn’t mean the entire company has said no. Map out the account better and approach more senior stakeholders with the information you’ve already gathered.
Q: How can I tell if someone is genuinely interested or just being polite? A: Look for commitment. Give them tasks to complete between meetings. If they’re not willing to do homework or bring other stakeholders into the conversation, they’re probably not serious buyers.
Q: What’s the difference between an inexperienced buyer and someone who’s genuinely not interested? A: Inexperienced buyers focus on demos and pricing upfront. Serious buyers want to understand how you solve their specific problems. If they’re pushing for product demos before discussing their challenges, that’s a red flag.
Q: How do I know if I’m talking to the right person? A: Ask direct questions about their decision-making process. “Who else would be involved in evaluating this type of solution?” and “What would the approval process look like?” If they can’t answer these questions or seem evasive, you might be talking to the wrong person.
Q: Is it ever appropriate to call someone out for ghosting? A: You can be direct without being confrontational. Frame it around the problems they shared with you and ask if the situation has changed. This keeps the focus on their business needs rather than making it about them ignoring you.
Author: Matthew Codd
I’m Matthew, I have 15 years of commercial leadership experience, helping VC-backed B2B technology companies scale revenue and transition from founder-led sales.
I use my experience to help early-stage start-ups with GTM expertise, sales best practice, and hiring insights.
I co-founded Cosmic Partners in 2022. We are SaaS sales recruitment specialists for VC backed B2B tech companies.
