If we spam you, please be polite to us

I recently came across a fascinating thread on LinkedIn where salespeople were frustrated by being “ghosted” by potential clients. They’d reach out, and simply get no response.

Ghosting someone isn’t generally a nice thing to do, but there was a big difference with this thread — almost everyone in there was sending cold emails (you know, spam) and they were upset with the lack of polite “no’s” that people were offering if they’re not interested.

If you’re having an ongoing conversation with a potential client, and they choose to work with someone else, getting a “no” response from them should be expected. That’s not the case here.

Knowing that most of us get 10–20 of these spammy emails every day, taking the time to respond to all of them would be silly. Those in this thread do not agree, though. Their thought is that if you say “no” they’ll stop bugging you, and so it’s in your best interest to do so. That may be true, but it feels more like a threat — “I will continue to spam you until you write back”.

From Christopher:

Could not agree more. Respond with a direct reason why it’s not a good fit or you’re not the right person allows me to update my CRM and leave you be.

Or Andrew, who says that a “no” isn’t enough, and you should pester them for more…