One respectful follow-up is completely fine. Busy consultants miss messages all the time, and a short nudge after several days is normal professional behavior, not desperation.

The tone matters, though. Keep it light, acknowledge that they may be busy, and make it easy for them to decline or ignore without creating awkwardness. If there is still no reply after that, move on.

It also helps to widen your funnel. Networking goes much more smoothly when you are not emotionally tied to one specific person responding.

Being left on read does not necessarily mean you did anything wrong. It usually just means the other person had different priorities that week. You may also find it helpful to read networking follow-up strategies and examples if you want a more structured way to practice this.

I always do one follow-up and then drop it. Anything beyond that starts feeling forced.

How long has it been since they read it? If it has only been a couple days, I would probably wait a bit longer.

Soft no and ‘forgot’ look identical from your side, so one follow-up is the only way to test it.

Was your original message specific about why you wanted to speak with them, or more of a general coffee chat ask?

If one person does not answer, just reach out to three more. Makes the whole thing less emotionally loaded.