If the person receiving a pitch (the investor, sales prospect, job candidate, interviewer, anything really) doesn’t follow up promptly — they’re not interested.

They’re not busy or distracted, they’re just not interested.

It’s so easy to imagine that someone is interested in what you’re pitching but they’re busy or distracted, but if you look back on all your successful pitches, I can guarantee that it was obvious that the other side was interested.

You just don’t get excited about a product and then promptly forget to reply for 3 weeks.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t not follow up after pitches — sending a follow up shortly after the pitch is a great way to recap a pitch with a bow on it (especially with Journey!) and sending a further note in a few days just reiterates your interest.

But after that you’re really just wasting your time.

There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about how critical it is that investors say no to fundraising opportunities — why?

If founders would simply realise that deals are bought not sold — that if an investor wants to invest, they’ll make it clear — and if they don’t: move on.

You might think that being told why is a valuable data point. Does the investor have a concern? Is the prospect using an alternative tool? Was the interviewer unimpressed by an answer to a question?

The reality is that if they’re unwilling to give you a quick no there is really no chance that they’ll be willing to provide a meaningful data point.

They just don’t like you!

Similarly, when I send an SDRs phone call to voicemail for the second time and ignore their sixth email: read the room, I am not interested.

Increasingly, I have started to be lightly irked when someone doesn’t read the room — you emailed me out of the blue three times, I didn’t reply, do you really need to keep asking me if I am interested?

I shouldn’t have to do this:

As time goes on, I believe this mindset is an empowering mindset. That you need to prepare, shoot your shot, and make it count. Your pitches are Champions League finals, not one of 162 annual baseball games.

This is part of the reason why we started Journey — because the current tools do not help you tell your story sufficiently to compel an audience to buy.

Editors note: We previously said there were 160 annual baseball games when in fact there are allegedly 162 annual baseball games. We regret this error and have corrected it.