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Best Regards Meaning: When to Use It and Better Sign-Off Alternatives
You've written the email. The body is strong, the subject line is sharp - and then you pause at the sign-off. "Best regards"? "Kind regards"? Does it actually matter?
It does. Especially in sales, where every element of a follow-up email either builds momentum or kills it. Your closing line is the last thing a prospect reads before deciding whether to reply.
"Best regards" means with my best wishes and respect - a closing phrase rooted in formal letter-writing that has carried over into professional email. It's polite, neutral, and widely accepted. What it isn't is memorable, warm, or likely to prompt a reply on its own.
For most sales follow-up emails, that neutrality is its biggest limitation.
What Does "Best Regards" Actually Mean?
"Best regards" is a professional email sign-off meaning "with my best wishes and respect," used to close a message on a warm but formal note. In sales emails, it signals politeness without adding warmth or urgency - making it safe but rarely memorable. For follow-up emails where you need a reply, more intentional closings tend to outperform it.
The phrase evolved from 18th and 19th-century letter conventions, where writers would close with phrases like "I remain, with the highest regards, your obedient servant." Over time, these were condensed. "Best regards" is the modern, clipped version - the formality is still there, but the full sentiment has been dropped.
Today, it works as a social signal: I'm professional, I respect you, and I know how to write a business email. Nothing more, nothing less.
"Best Regards" vs. "Kind Regards" vs. "Warm Regards": What's the Difference?
These three phrases are often used interchangeably, but they carry meaningfully different tones - especially when your prospect is reading a dozen emails a day.
| Sign-Off | Tone | Best Used When |
|---|---|---|
| Best regards | Neutral, professional | First contact, cold outreach, formal contexts |
| Kind regards | Slightly warmer, collegial | Early relationship, first reply, vendor outreach |
| Warm regards | Personal, friendly | Existing relationship, sensitive messages, long-term clients |
| Regards (alone) | Formal, concise | Formal B2B communication, brief replies |
| Sincerely | Traditional, formal | Contracts, proposals, first-time formal letters |
The rule of thumb: the warmer the relationship, the warmer the closing. Using "warm regards" on a cold outreach to someone you've never spoken to reads as presumptuous. Using "regards" alone on a message to a long-time client reads as cold.
For most sales professionals, the progression looks like:
- Cold outreach → "Best regards" or "Thanks"
- Post-first-reply → "Kind regards" or "Looking forward to it"
- Active deal / relationship → "Warm regards," "Thanks," or a named next step
Is "Best Regards" Actually Hurting Your Reply Rates?
Probably not hurting them - but it's not helping either.
According to a Boomerang study analyzing over 350,000 professional emails, closings that showed gratitude - "Thanks," "Thank you," "Thanks in advance" - outperformed neutral sign-offs by 36% in reply rate. "Best regards" and similar neutral closings clustered near the bottom of reply-rate benchmarks.
That doesn't mean you should never use it. In highly formal B2B contexts - legal, finance, enterprise procurement - straying too far from convention can actually hurt you. When a prospect is evaluating risk, looking polished and orthodox builds trust.
But in most modern sales cycles - SMB, SaaS, founder-led sales - you have more latitude. And in follow-up emails specifically, you want to close with forward motion.
According to HubSpot's Sales Email Report, the average sales email gets a reply rate of just 8.5%. The sign-off alone won't fix that - but every marginal signal helps.
What Sign-Offs Work Better in Sales Follow-Up Emails?
The best sign-off depends on what you want the prospect to do next.
If you want a reply:
"Let me know if you have any questions" "Would Thursday at 2pm work?" "Looking forward to your thoughts"
If you're re-engaging a cold prospect:
"Still happy to help if the timing is better now" "No worries if priorities have shifted - just let me know"
If you're closing a deal or confirming next steps:
"Talk soon" "Looking forward to our call Wednesday" "See you then"
If formality is genuinely required:
"Best regards" or "Kind regards" are both fine
According to research from Salesforce's State of Sales report, 78% of business buyers say they're more likely to purchase from reps who feel like trusted advisors. Your sign-off is one of dozens of small signals that either build or erode that perception.
For a deeper breakdown of what works across different scenarios, see our guide on how to end an email professionally and how to close an email.
How to Choose the Right Sign-Off for Each Follow-Up Stage
Not all follow-up emails are equal - and your sign-off should reflect where you are in the conversation.
Cold outreach (first touch)
Prioritize professional and low-friction. "Best regards" works here. So does a plain "Thanks." Don't try to manufacture warmth you haven't earned yet.
Post-meeting recap
This is where "best regards" underperforms. After a meeting, you have context - use it. Close with something specific: "Looking forward to the intro call you mentioned with your VP" or "Thanks again for the time today - talk soon."
Klipy's AI follow-up drafts automatically pull context from meeting notes to generate post-meeting emails that close with the right next step - not a generic pleasantry.
Re-engagement (deal gone cold)
Go low-pressure and conversational. "Best regards" here can feel strangely formal for someone you've already spoken with. "Hope things are going well" or a direct "Still worth a quick chat?" does more work.
Proposal / negotiation stage
Back to professional. "Best regards," "Kind regards," or "Thanks" all fit. This isn't the stage to experiment with tone.
For a full structural breakdown of each follow-up type, check the sales follow-up email format guide.
How AI Changes the Sign-Off Problem
If you're sending dozens of follow-up emails a week, you're not agonizing over each sign-off - you're probably defaulting to "best regards" because it's safe and fast.
The problem is that safe and fast usually means generic. And generic emails are exactly what prospects have trained themselves to ignore.
AI tools like Klipy draft follow-up emails based on the actual context of your meetings - what was discussed, what the prospect cared about, what next step was implied. The sign-off becomes specific to the situation instead of a fallback phrase.
You can try this without any commitment using the free AI follow-up email generator - paste in your meeting notes and get a draft built around your actual conversation.
As a benchmark: According to Gartner (2025), sales reps spend an average of 28% of their time on email-related tasks. Shaving even 5 minutes per follow-up across a 20-email week adds up fast.
The Short Answer on "Best Regards"
"Best regards" is correct, professional, and completely fine in the right context. It means what it says - a respectful, polished close. But in a sales follow-up where every word is competing for attention, a sign-off that implies what happens next will always outperform one that just signals I have good manners.
Use "best regards" when formality is genuinely called for. For everything else, close with intention - and make it easy for the prospect to say yes to the next step.
