Assume something changed internally rather than that they hate you. Work the other threads first, since a silent champion often means a reprioritization they are embarrassed to explain. Give value in the follow-up instead of checking in, then send a clean close-the-loop message that makes it easy to say the deal is dead. Silence is information; the mistake is spending six weeks pretending it is not.
Why interviewers ask this
Going dark is routine, and the interviewer wants to see a process rather than desperation. They are looking for whether you multithreaded well enough to have another route in, whether your follow-ups add something or just nag, and whether you have the discipline to declare a deal dead. Reps who cannot close a file keep a fantasy forecast and waste months on deals that ended weeks ago.
How to structure your answer
- Check the other threads in the account before escalating.
- Make every follow-up carry something useful, not a check-in.
- Look for external causes: reorgs, budget freezes, a bigger project landing.
- Send a permission-to-close message and mean it.
- Move the forecast down while you work it, not after.
Example answer
I start by not taking it personally, because nine times out of ten it is not about me. Something landed on their desk that is bigger than my deal. So first I use the other threads. If I have talked to their operations lead or their finance partner, I go there, not to bombard the champion but to find out what changed. If I only have one contact, that is my own fault and I note it. My follow-ups have to be worth opening. Not touching base, but here is how another company in your space handled the migration question your architect raised, thirty seconds of reading. Then, usually after three or four attempts across two weeks, I send the one that actually works: it looks like this is not a priority right now, which is completely fine, should I close it out and come back after your planning cycle. That email gets a reply more often than anything else I send, and half the time the reply is no, do not close it, here is what happened. And I move it out of commit the day it goes quiet.
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See how it worksFollow-up questions to expect
- How many follow ups do you send before the break-up message?
- What exactly goes in a follow up that is not a check-in?
- How do you prevent your champion from going dark in the first place?
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