When you know, you know. Maybe you’re the only one putting in any effort, or they never follow through on their promises and commitments. You can see it’s not going anywhere and you’ve had enough.

It’s time for the breakup email.

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What is a breakup email? [TEMPLATE]

A breakup email is a final email in a sequence of outreach to a sales prospect — a last ditch effort and a promise to leave them alone if you can’t make it work.

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The breakup email is a strategic move in sales prospecting that can confirm that a lead has gone cold, or it could be the spark you need to rekindle the relationship. If you’re ready to break up with a prospect, try the email template below and keep reading to learn how and why breakup emails work.

Subject: Over and out from [yourCompany]

Hi [contactName],

I’ve been trying to reach you over the past few days, and I’m bummed we couldn’t connect. We would love to have you as a customer, but I don’t want to bombard you with emails.

If you’re interested in discussing how we can [insert your solution to their pain point], please let me know. Otherwise, this will be my last email.

Best,
[yourName]

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Why send a breakup email to your prospect?

In short, we send breakup emails to prospects in order to achieve one of two outcomes:

1. Continued silence or outright rejection. This helps you close the file, clean up your pipeline, and move on. A “no” is better than hanging in limbo or sinking more effort into a lost cause.
2. Reengagement. Sometimes a lead just needs a nudge in order to take the next step.

A breakup email can help reengage a prospect for a couple reasons.

It creates a sense of urgency. If your prospect is interested, most likely they’ve been busy and assumed they could put off the conversation for another time. The breakup email tells them it’s now or never, or at least encourages them to share a better time to connect. If your product or service is a priority — or even an interest — for them, they need to let you know.

It shows your prospect that there’s a real person behind your communication. We all get a lot of emails and it’s easy to assume many of them are auto-generated. Even if you’re sending a mail merge or a campaign (coming soon!), your breakup email can help humanize the correspondence and elicit a reply.

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How to write a great breakup email

As with any email outreach, you should experiment with a few variations and tactics. Try the template above, and maybe craft one or two of your own breakup emails. These tips will help you write an effective breakup email.

Make it quick.

A prospect who hasn’t engaged with your previous emails is unlikely to read a lengthy email from you now. Keep it short and skimmable.

Make it personal, and about them.

Start the email by stating that you have tried to reach out, but then switch gears to focus on the prospect. A breakup email shouldn’t be about you or how you’re losing out on a deal.

Voice and tone are an important part of making a breakup email sound personal and like it’s coming from a real human. Since you’ve got nothing to lose, this is your chance to be real with them. Use personal and direct language.

Try to connect by letting them know you understand. For example, our template says “I don’t want to bombard you with emails” because we all know how annoying that can be.

Don’t accuse or guilt trip.

Steer clear of sounding accusatory or making the prospect feel guilty that they left you hanging. They don’t owe you anything.

Put the ball in their court, and make it final.

The key to a breakup email is making it final. We know it hurts, but it’s best for everybody.

Let them know you’re available if they change their mind, but that you won’t be reaching out to them again. Ever. And then walk away and delete their number.

Don’t send breakup emails to completely cold leads.

Breakup emails work best when the prospect has shown at least some prior interest. That could mean they previously scheduled a call, replied to an email, or signed up for a product sample or free trial.

If they never engaged or showed interest to begin with, your breakup email probably won’t change their mind and might end up sounding gimmicky or insincere.

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Ready to break up?

Try saving the template above as a snippet to send in a mail merge. Not a streak customer yet? Try it for free.

We’d love to hear your experience with breakup emails below. Do they work for you? Have you ever had a surprising response?