What to say when a client is not responding: name the silence, ask one question, set a date

On 6 November 2026, Google autocomplete finished "what to say when client is not responding" with one word: "examples".

The same phrase comes back when you type "client went quiet", "client not responding to email" or "client taking too long to respond".

Type "client not responding" on its own and Google assumes a game crashed. PUBG, DayZ, Roblox.

So people want the words, and they are further down.

Here is the complication. Most follow-up templates treat silence as one problem, and it is at least four. A soft nudge on an overdue approval costs you the deadline, and a firm one on an unsigned proposal costs you the deal.

And sending more makes it worse.

Every identical follow-up teaches the client that ignoring you has no consequence, so the fifth message lands weaker than the first.

This is written as a method, like most of what I put on tgsidd.com. There are no client stories here and no reply rates, because I have no reply-rate figure I could show you.

Step 1: Work out which silence you have

Ask what the silence is blocking. There are four answers.

The prospect. They had the call or the proposal and have not signed. Nothing is owed, and they are free to walk.

The approver. The work is under way and stuck on a file, a decision or feedback. Your deadline is running while they say nothing.

The payer. An invoice is overdue. That one has its own sequence, four messages and a cutoff, so I will not repeat it here.

The quiet payer. The invoices clear and the messages go unanswered. Nobody writes about this one, and I think it is the most dangerous of the four.

Step 2: Check your own side first

Some silences are self-inflicted.

Reread your last message. If it ended with "let me know your thoughts", you sent nothing they could answer, and it got filed under later.

Then check the address.

The approver you named at kickoff may have changed roles, gone on leave or be waiting on someone else, and none of that reaches you unless you ask.

Try the channel they normally use before you write anything sterner. A message nobody read cannot be ignored.

Step 3: Delete "just checking in"

Ban the phrase.

It asks the client to work out what you want, decide whether it matters, and then write you something. That is three small jobs with no reason to do any of them today.

Every message needs three parts: the exact thing you need, a question they can answer in a word, and a date.

Then add the line most templates leave out, which is what you will do if the date passes.

Hi [name], I need [the one thing] to keep [deliverable] on [date]. Is [option] fine, yes or no? If I have not heard by [day], I will [next step].

That last sentence is how you follow up without being pushy.

Pushy is the same ask repeated with more feeling. A date and a next step are information, and the decision stays with them.

But only write a next step you will carry out. Miss it once and every date you give them afterwards is soft.

Step 4: The prospect gets two messages and a close

A prospect owes you nothing, so the tone stays light and the sequence stays short.

A couple of working days after the proposal, I would send this:

Hi [name], following up on the proposal from Tuesday. Is the problem the start date, the scope, or has this moved down the list? One word is fine.

"Moved down the list" is the option doing the work. It hands them a polite way to say no, and a no lets you stop spending time on a deal that ended without anyone mentioning it.

A week later, if nothing came back, close it:

I am going to close this out so it stops sitting in your inbox. If it comes back up, reply here and I will pick it up from the same proposal.

Then close it for real.

Do not send a third message with a discount attached. That is negotiating against yourself in a room with nobody else in it. If they do come back wanting a lower number, trade scope, never the rate.

Step 5: The approver is where the money goes

This is the expensive one.

An editor's slot is reserved, the work is half done, and when the date slips, the client will remember that you missed it.

VALORAE Arc is one of the agencies I run, and 500+ delivered videos is a lot of work that can sit waiting on one busy person. Arc's approval rule is the one I would copy: agree in advance that a batch with no notes after a set window counts as approved, and make anything featuring a guest wait for a real yes.

So if you agreed a default, as I set out in the client onboarding process, point at it:

Hi [name], batch 3 is in the folder. Under our agreement, anything without notes by Thursday goes ahead as delivered. Reply with a number to hold any of it.

If you never agreed one, you do not get to invent it now.

Silence is not consent. Posting to a client's account because nobody answered is how you end up reading how to respond when a client fires you.

So hold the work, and say what holding it does:

Hi [name], I need a yes or no on the two drafts to keep the 14th. If I have not heard by Thursday, they move to the next open slot and the 14th goes. Either is fine. I just need to plan the week.

Then pick up the phone, once.

If they are buried, stop chasing them and ask them to name someone who can sign off. Arc's rule has this fix too: let a delegate approve.

Busy people rarely need a reminder. They need to be out of the loop.

Step 6: Pause it in writing

If the date passed and the call went nowhere, stop and say so.

We have paused [project] until we hear from you. To restart, send [the thing] and we will give you the next open date.

Tell the team the same day, and pay them on the date you agreed for what is finished.

Then give the slot to other work. It is the one cost you can still control.

On a retainer, read the agreement first. My rule is in the retainer post: unused capacity does not roll over, because the fee paid for holding the slot.

Step 7: The quiet payer gets the awkward question

Money arriving feels like an answer. It is not one.

You are delivering with no signal on whether any of it works, and the first thing you hear may be a cancellation. So ask, and make the hard answer easy to give.

Hi [name], I have not heard from you in a few weeks. Usually that means it is all fine, it has stopped being a priority, or something is off and nobody has said so. Which one is it? Any of the three helps me.

If it has stopped being a priority, offer a smaller scope or a pause, and mean it.

I will not pretend this always keeps the client.

Sometimes it brings forward a cancellation you would otherwise have had two months later, and that is real money you would have kept billing in the meantime.

I would still ask. Billing someone who has stopped reading is a cancellation with a delay, and they get to decide how they tell the story afterwards.

And if the question gets no answer either, end it on the contract date, the way I set out in how to fire a client.

Step 8: Write the silence into the next agreement

Every long silence shows you a gap you can close before the next client signs.

Add three lines:

• Who approves, and who approves when that person is away.
• How long a batch waits for notes, and what happens when the window closes.
• What a pause means, how it starts, and how the work restarts.

None of this makes every client reply.

It means that when one does not, you already know what happens next, and so do they.

The short version

• Work out which silence you have: prospect, approver, payer or quiet payer.
• Check your own last message and the address before you get firmer.
• Replace "just checking in" with the exact need, a one-word question and a date.
• State what happens if the date passes, then do it.
• Close a silent prospect after two messages, with no discount.
• Treat silence as approval only if you agreed that in advance.
• Ask the client who pays and never replies which of the three it is.

I write these operator notes at tgsidd.com.