How do you handle customer “ghosting”?

Wait some time.

Make sure you are prospecting well. Do not let time sinks take away from filling your pipe.

Then, send them a "let us not waste one another's time" email or two.

Basically ask whether they want, need contact. No pressure, just want to make sure the activity makes sense for everyone.

This often works. When it does, you get clarity on what makes sense, and often why.

When it doesn't, put those people on low rotation, a ping every few months. Include some news, thing of value and well wishes.

They either unsub, or respond eventually.

By this stage, it should be background activity. Not a time sink.

Following up is vital in sales and should be built into every sales routine.

Sometimes it's just not top priority for the customer or they get distracted. Sometimes, like taxes, it's on their to do list, but they procrastinate on it until it's a bigger problem. Sometimes they've nearly maxed their budget and chose to buy something else.

Best thing you can do is keep on moving on to gain new customers. If you have something they want they will buy, move those that disappear into a contact later group and reach out at a later time. Remember every pre-sales customer has a cost/time value. If they are not bringing you in money move on to those that do so you can further improve the SaaS company and maybe they will come back when you have what they are looking for.

What I do is send them an email every couple of months. Some people get busy, some people aren't interested anymore, some are embarrassed because they let on they have more power to buy than they do.

Some will tell you to stop emailing, some will never respond and some will eventually respond.

Also check your contact is actually still working there/try to have multiple people in the loop to avoid that.