So you’ve tried and tried but you just can’t get your B2B prospects to respond to your messages.

Now you’re left wondering if you should keep trying or give up on the contact and seek out someone more responsive.

Prospects that don’t reply can be a great source of stress for sales people or entrepreneurs. This blog post will share 5 tips my team at VA Partners uses to decided when it’s time to move on from your non-responsive prospects and what to do about that problem.

1. How Many Attempts to Reach My Contact Should I Make?

It’s an important question with a unique answer depending on the industry and level you target. For high level contacts, we find that you may need to reach out about 10 times to reach your contact. For lower level contacts, or contacts at smaller organizations, we find that it can take about 5 attempts to reach your contact. To help you find what is right for your contact level and the industry you target, try comparing with your colleagues.

2. Try Multiple Communication Platforms for Contact

If voicemails and emails aren’t working, try contacting your contact through Twitter or LinkedIn. By identifying and utilizing your contacts preferred method of communication, you will help to increase your odds or earning a response. If you haven’t started using social media to boost your sales be sure to check out our presentation on getting started with Twitter and our blog on using LinkedIn for your social selling plan.

3. They Still Aren’t Responding And I Don’t Know If I Should Continue

This decision will come down to how large or important you see the potential opportunity. If the potential client represents large enough value, it can be worth trying to continue reaching the contact. If your messages continue to go without a response, try switching contacts in order to try and find a new way into an account. For contacts that don’t represent a lot of value, it might be time to just move on.

4. I’m Worried About Changing Targets

Perhaps you fear you will be seen as rude or cause offence, and this fear prevents you from changing who you target at your targeted organization. Take the advice of the VA Partners sales team and don’t worry. Your can’t lose business you don’t have. It’s unlikely that your original contact will care that you reached out to someone else. If you feel you have tried your best to reach a contact and they haven’t responded, then don’t be afraid to move on.

5. I’m Not Ready To Move On

If you’re still unsure if it is time to move on or you think there is a potential for a strong fit, try setting a reminder to research the target organization a few months down the road to see if things have changed and if the opportunity has grown. You can follow up as you see fit based on any new developments.

Be sure to apply these 5 points for your nonresponsive B2B contacts to help you better utilize your time and close more successful sales. If you’ve enjoyed this post and would like to get some more helpful tips on how to conduct prospect research, be sure to check out our free white paper. Remember, good research can help your reach out to the right targets with the right information, making your message much harder to ignore.