Well, I’ve been on both sides of this, and what finally clicked for me was realizing that silence isn’t always a no, it’s usually just a cluttered inbox. My rule now is three follow ups spaced about a week apart: first is a gentle bump with something useful, second is a direct “should I close this out?”, third is a short breakup email. Sarcasm burned me once too, so I stick to neutral, curious language like “has this fallen off your radar?” The real game changer was using an accurate email finder like https://www.signalhire.com/ to verify I had the right contact in the first place. Turns out a lot of my early “ghosting” was just bad addresses or spam filters. A good B2B contact database saves you from chasing the wrong people, which makes follow ups feel less like begging and more like checking in. Now I spend less time guessing and more time talking to actual humans.