When a prospect replies "send me more info", answer within the hour with two or three lines that say something useful, ask one question back, and offer two specific times for a short call. Don't send a brochure and wait. "More info" is either a soft yes or a polite way of ending the conversation, and the way you answer decides which one it becomes.

Lena runs Tidewater Payroll, a small payroll service for restaurants. She emailed a restaurant owner named Joe Alvarez, and he replied in one line: "Sure, send me more info." Here's how she handled it, step by step, and what you can borrow.

What the reply usually means

Read it for what the person is trying to do. Joe is busy, and your email interrupted a prep list. The easiest reply that isn't a rude no is "send me more info." It might mean he's curious and wants a low-effort way to learn more. It might mean he has no interest and doesn't want a debate. Either is possible, and you can't tell from the words.

That uncertainty is the reason to treat the reply as a conversation, not a delivery request. If you send a PDF and wait, the likely outcome is that nothing happens. If you send something short and ask a question, you get information either way: a real answer, or silence, which tells you where you stand.

Answer within the hour

Speed matters because the reply is a moment of attention that fades fast. Joe wrote it between orders. In two days he will have forgotten which vendor it was. If you can reply within the hour, do. If you're in a meeting, send one line saying you'll follow up properly by end of day, then do.

Many small businesses lose these chances without realizing it, since replies come in at night or during a job and sit in the inbox. A tool that watches for replies and answers quickly helps here, and so does a phone alert for your sales inbox. The cost of waiting is covered in the lead you never followed up.

Send two lines, not a brochure

The person asked for information, so give some, but give the part that matters to them, not everything you have. Lena's reply:

Hi Joe, thanks for writing back. In short: we run payroll for restaurants, including tip reporting and the weekly pay cycle, for a flat $4 per employee per run. No setup fee.

One question so I send you the right thing: how many people do you pay each week, and who handles it now?

Lena

That's about 55 words. It states the offer and the price, in plain terms, so Joe knows what he's being asked to consider. It doesn't dump a 12-page deck. A fact like the price removes the most common reason people go quiet, which is not wanting to start a conversation that might be expensive.

If your price varies, give a range and say what changes it. The guide to the price question, how to answer "how much does it cost" in a cold email reply, covers that.

Ask a question back

Information flows both ways. Your question serves two purposes. It lets you tailor what you send, and it turns a one-way delivery into a thread. A person who answers "eleven people, my wife does it on Sundays" has just told you the problem, who feels it, and what a good fit looks like.

Ask for something they know off the top of their head. Avoid questions that need research ("what's your total payroll spend?") or that feel like a form. Good ones are about the current way of doing it, the size, or the timing. If the reply comes back with detail, you're talking to a real prospect. If it comes back empty, you can learn from that too.

Offer two times for a call

If Joe answers, move toward a short call, and make that easy by offering two specific times:

Thanks, Joe. That sounds like a fit for what we do. Would a 15-minute call work Tuesday at 2:30 or Wednesday at 10? I'll show you what a weekly run looks like for an 11-person crew.

Two choices beat "when are you free?", which makes the person do the work of checking a calendar and proposing a time. They beat a scheduling link in the first reply to a cold lead, though a link is fine later. If you're unsure which ask suits the situation, cold email call to action examples sorts them by how much effort they ask of the reader.

Keep the call short, say how long it will take, and say what you'll show. People accept 15 minutes more readily than "a quick chat."

If the request comes from someone who is not the buyer

Sometimes "send me more info" comes from an assistant, a manager, or a partner who has to pass it along. That's fine, and it's a good sign if they're willing to forward it. Write the reply so it can be forwarded as is: a single paragraph that says who you are, what you do, what it costs and what you'd like to happen next, with your phone number under it.

Thanks, Priscilla. Here is something you can pass straight to Joe. Tidewater Payroll runs weekly payroll and tip reporting for restaurants at a flat $4 per employee per run, no setup fee. If he'd like to see how it works for a crew his size, I can do a 15-minute call. My direct line is (555) 010-0150.

Then ask whether it would help to also write to Joe directly, so you aren't relying on one forward. Most people say yes.

When to send an attachment

Sometimes the person really does want a document. A price list, a sample report or a one-page overview can help, and in some trades (anything involving a licence or insurance) people want a certificate on file. When they ask for something specific, send it.

Even then, put the key point in the body of the email and attach the file as backup. Many people read email on a phone and won't open a PDF. Keep the file small, name it so it makes sense in a downloads folder (tidewater-payroll-overview.pdf, not final_v3.pdf), and don't attach anything to the very first cold message. Attachments on a first email are one more thing a spam filter looks at.

Follow up if they go quiet

If Joe doesn't answer your reply, you haven't been rejected. He may have gotten busy. Wait two or three days and send a short note on the same thread:

Joe, circling back in case my note got buried. Should I send the sample weekly report, or would a quick call be better? Either is fine, and if now isn't the time, just tell me.

If there's still no reply after a second note, send one last message a week or so later and then stop. The wording is in cold email follow up after no response. And if the reply you get is "not interested", the right move is different; see how to respond to a "not interested" cold email reply.

Rocketship's AI worker reads replies like Joe's, classifies them, answers the common ones promptly in your voice from your own Gmail, and proposes meeting times when someone is interested. Its approach to replies is described on the AI workers page, and the broader idea in outbound that reads the reply. For your own manual process, what to do when a reply comes back is a useful checklist.

A fast, short answer turns a vague "send info" into a meeting more often than a brochure does. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required.