Follow Up on Outreach That Got No Reply
When to use it
Write the second touch and the close-out together, so a silent thread ends cleanly instead of trailing off.
The prompt
Write the rest of my outreach sequence to a candidate who hasn't replied about a {{Job Title}} role. FIRST MESSAGE, SENT {{X days}} AGO: {{paste it}} WHAT I KNOW ABOUT THEM: {{current role, tenure, anything specific I referenced}} WHAT HAS GENUINELY CHANGED SINCE: {{a team update, funding, the role's scope, a real deadline — or "nothing", and say so honestly}} HOW MANY TIMES I'VE REACHED OUT ALREADY: {{number, and on which channels}} Give me: 1. A second touch under 50 words that adds the new detail rather than restating the first message. If I told you nothing has changed, say so and tell me to wait rather than writing it anyway. 2. A close-out message for when that gets no reply either: respectful, no guilt, explicitly the last message about this specific role rather than a permanent goodbye. 3. How long to leave between the two, given their seniority and how heavily this skill set gets approached. 4. One line to cut from my first message, and why it probably cost me the reply. No "just following up", no "circling back", no deadlines that aren't real. Each message should be easy to ignore without the candidate feeling rude.
Tip
The close-out is what earns you the next conversation. A thread that goes quiet on both sides makes it awkward for someone to answer you a year later; a clean ending makes it normal.
How to use it
Paste the prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or whichever assistant you use, then replace every {{bracketed}} part with your own detail. The more specific and messier your input, the better the output — a model given raw notes has more to work with than one given a tidy summary you wrote first.
More Outreach prompts
Open the full tool for all 87 prompts, the glossary, and the JD decoder.