59 \\ Conversation-Based Selling System! How to Turn Chats Into Clients With a Simple Follow-Up Process (That Feels Natural)

Hook: Follow-up is not about convincing. It's not about convincing anyone of anything. It's about serving. Just think about it. When you follow up, you're saying, hey, I remember you. I care enough to check back in. You're not just a number to me. I didn't forget about our conversation.
Intro: Tired of showing up online, posting your heart out and still hearing crickets? Are you doing all the right things but wondering why your content isn't converting, your DMs are dry, and your audience isn't buying? You're not alone and this podcast is exactly for you. Welcome to Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses, where strategy meets soul and connection, well, that's the secret sauce. Hi, I'm Cheyanne Cleyman. A wife, proud mama of three, former actress and fitness trainer turned serial entrepreneur and online relationship expert. Over the last decade, I've built my own brands, helped dozens of others grow theirs and discovered one powerful truth. Connection is the real currency. If you're a service-based business or high-ticket brand that wants more leads, trust, and sales from social media without the burnout or fake hype, you're in the right place. Each week I'm bringing you short, powerful impact episodes that feel like a coffee date with a best friend and biz coach all in one. Let's turn your followers into clients and content into connection. This is Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses and it's about to change how you show up online. Let's dive in, boss.
Cheyanne Cleyman: A conversation based selling system. Is that what drew you into this episode? How about turning chats into clients with a natural follow-up process? If it sounds too easy, I promise you that it is. Not. It's not as easy as it may sound but when you put the effort behind the work and you make it intentional, it is going to be so much easier and smoother and much more human in this totally obsessed AI world and it's going to make you stand out when AI starts to take over everything.
Let's talk about the moment that makes most small business owners totally uncomfortable. It's the follow-up. We get excited when we get that DM or we see that email come in, right? Or perhaps someone replies to your story or they comment something like, oh my gosh, that's exactly what I'm struggling with. And that's what you want. That's exactly why you spend time creating content for your social media. So, you respond, they respond, there's maybe flow going, there's interest, and then nothing. It's like a good date that started amazing and it just falls short. Days pass, you don't want to bug them, you don't want to be that annoying person, you don't want to feel salesy. So, you find yourself waiting. But what happens when you wait? Well, the conversation quietly dies. If you've ever wondered, oh, was this my fault or did I miss my chance when it comes to a client? I want you to know this. Most conversations don't die because people aren't interested. They die because there's just no system. There's no flow.
Today, I'm going to show you how to turn your conversation and how to turn your conversations into clients without pressure, awkwardness or chasing. Let's get it. So, why do most conversations stall? If you've been listening to my podcast for some time you'll know that I continually joke and say that I feel like this is half marketing, half relationship. It's ultimately relationship marketing, right? Podcast focused, but so many of my tools, like, you could apply to dating relationships. So if you find yourself out there dating, well there you go. You get a two-for-one bonus here by listening to this podcast. You're welcome.
But one of the biggest misconceptions about selling through conversations, right? And honestly, again, what are you doing when you are getting to know someone? You're kind of selling yourself. Not in a sleazy way, but in a way that you want them to just get to know you and to see your true authentic self. And I think that happens a lot with small business owners as well. So we could fall into that trap of, you know, if someone wants it badly enough, they'll follow up. If they want to know me bad enough, they'll follow up. We put it in other people's hands. But that's ultimately not how humans work. People or your future clients, they're busy. They get distracted. They forget. I mean, they assume you'll reach out if it matters. So, we're both on both sides of this like weird awkward assumption sandwich and everyone's assuming the other person is going to reach out and then nothing happens. So, when conversations stall, I promise you, it's usually not rejection. It's not. It's a lack of structure. Of what's the next step in the flow of this conversation. So, memory is not a sales strategy, right? Like good intentions are not a system. And you may have both of those things. But when everything lives in your head, things fall through the crack.
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So let's talk a bit about like why the follow-up feels so hard. I want to get to the tactical stuff, but I also want us to acknowledge that awkwardness that maybe we feel, that clamminess in our hands and our fingers when we think about follow-ups. So, why? Why are follow-ups so emotionally loaded? Well, it's because if you're like most business owners, we associate a follow-up with pressure or awkwardness or, I don't know, being annoying or bothering people. But here's the reframe that changes everything. Really, really focus in on this point here. Follow-up is not about convincing. It's not about convincing anyone of anything. It's about serving. Because think about it. When you follow up, you're saying to that potential client, hey, I remember you. I care enough to check back in. You're not just a number to me, right? I didn't forget about our conversation. And what you're doing right there is you're building trust. Not resistance. Especially with the right people.
Now, it might take people a little bit of time to trust you. To be honest, in today's world with so much AI - and I tell you, I'm not against AI. You'll find plenty of podcast episodes here that actually encourage you to leverage AI for your business. I think that when you use AI in the right way, it can really open up these beautiful opportunities to have more conversations with people and be authentic and be human because you're letting the computers take care of the busy work so that you can actually work your business. And I feel like especially when you work in a service-based business, having conversations pre-service, like with your potential clients, that is part of your business. It's part of what actually lets people know who you are.
So, how do you set up a conversation based selling system? How do you actually know that's what you have or maybe what you don't have? So, a conversation-based selling system does one thing really well. It removes emotion from the follow-up. And you might be like, well wait a second. Conversation-based, doesn't that involve more emotions? Well, helps you know who you've talked to. Remember what they were struggling with. Remembering knowing where to pick up the conversation because you now see where it left off. And know when to check back in. So in those moments, there's no pressure. There's no guessing. There's no starting over. It's just about consistency.
And consistency, I promise you, will beat charisma every time. And I like to think of myself as having quite a bit of charisma myself, a little bit of woo there. But I will say that in business, consistency is the thing that helps me win time and time again. So here's something that might surprise you. The best closers are not the most charismatic. And I've met quite a bit of closers and just in my business relationships nowadays, I know a lot of closers. The people who are the best, they're actually just the most consistent. People don't buy from the people with the smoothest DM. Right? Think about it. Think about the last DM that maybe even impressed you. You know? Maybe you're like, oh, I like that. I like how they said that. But ultimately you probably bought from the person who shows up steadily, right? Because consistency communicates safety, reliability, leadership. I mean anyone can be a smooth talker. But this is like when someone hears from you more than once. It's going to signal different things going off in their heart and their brain. And I'm telling you, it's often quiet and it's often subconscious. They don't even realize this is happening. You're only going to realize it's happening because you are tracking it, because you have a system, and because you're doing it consistently.
So, you're signaling to someone like, hey, this person is serious. This person follows through. This person can be trusted. That's what converts. I'm telling you, it's the same thing in relationships, right? Like anyone can come up to you and drop a smooth line or two. Or maybe even compliment you in a way you've never been complimented before. But who's that person that converts for you? Who's that person that converts from friend to boyfriend? And then boyfriend to husband? It's the person who's consistent in so many of the important things, right?
And if you're thinking, okay, you're like wait a second. Okay, okay. I get this. This makes a lot of sense. But I don't know how to do all this tracking you're talking about, Cheyanne. Like how do I track conversations without feeling overwhelmed? Without having a bajillion notes opened on my phone. That's exactly why I created the Lead Gen Tracker. It's as simple as that. It helps you organize conversations in one place. It helps track warm leads. Remember who to follow up with and see who's close to converting. So, no more scattered notes. No more forgotten DMs. No more mental load. You can drop it and lock it, let it go in this Lead Gen Tracker. And you can download it for free. Just go hit it up in the show notes.
So often on this podcast, you'll hear me give a lot of like actionable intentional steps of things to do, but I think it's also important that at this point in the episode we also acknowledge and talk about there are some things you want to stop doing as well. And so here are a few things I want you to stop doing immediately. And if you need to pause, think about these, write these down, please do because I'm going to then tell you what you should be shifting to. But first, let's just emphasize that you need to stop waiting for the perfect time to follow up. I know, I know. I used to coach business owners who would say how long that they would just sit waiting and waiting and analyzing and over-analyzing and just basically becoming like an ostrich with their head in the sand because they waited too long for that quote-unquote perfect time, right? So stop doing it.
And on that same note, overthinking what to say. We can think about the most amazing perfect opening line or next pivot point in a conversation and it will just fall flat if you try to make it too perfect. If you try to make it too polished. Or if you go to ChatGPT too much and try to have this like perfect next statement. Be yourself and stop overthinking it. Also stop assuming that silence means no. It really doesn't. It doesn't. I promise you. People are just inundated and I tell this - right now I'm in my mom era and a lot of women that I coach, a lot of women that I am in daily conversations with are mompreneurs. And I always encourage them to reach out. When you think that someone's ghosting you, they're probably just busy. Or they got caught up or they forgot. Not unintentionally. I'm thinking about the last big purchases I've made. I made them because someone followed up. And it wasn't because I had purposely ghosted them. It's just because I had forgotten. Simple as that. So don't assume silence means no.
And then ultimately letting conversations live only in your head. Like, don't do that. Just don't do that. Be sure to step out, be bold, and let the conversations naturally flow. So instead of what not do, let's shift those things, okay? So instead, shift to just doing things simple. Keeping it simple. Simple check-ins. Short human messages, right? Don't sound like AI. Don't sound like a bot. Consistent. Consistent touch points and clear next steps. That one is huge. We have to lead someone to the water. You've heard that phrase. You can lead a horse to water, you can't make them drink it. No. Can't make them drink it. But you can lead them there. And they need clear steps. Follow-up doesn't need to be clever. It just needs to be, that's right, did you fill in the blank? If you've been listening, it's consistent.
So, you know that I leave every episode with an action step. And I usually focus on just one because I don't want you to feel overwhelmed. I actually want you to leave this podcast with a mission in hand and one that you can execute on right away. So, this week is actually really simple. It's just reminding you to go download that Lead Gen Tracker I talked about up in the earlier part of this episode. And what I want you to do is list out, list out the current conversations that you're having. Or go back, go back to past warm leads and people who showed interest but went quiet. Then, go back to that list and choose one person, just one, per day to follow up with. So, if you do that this week for an entire week until the next episode of this podcast drops, you will follow up with seven warm leads and I guarantee you, you follow these steps, you will have wonderfully warm conversations that are leading to that next client. And that's it. Small steady actions compound faster than bursts of effort. Don't forget that.
Thank you guys so much for tuning into Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses. If today's episode helped you reframe your follow-up, I would love for you to let me know. Screenshot it, share it to your stories and tag me @TheEnergizedMompreneur. You're just one conversation away to thrive and you're ready to revive it. Don't forget download that free Lead Gen Tracker in the show notes. You don't need to chase clients. You just need a system that supports connection. And we'll continue to work on building yours out perfectly and intentionally for your business on the next episode.
Outro: All right my friend, that's it for today. But let me leave you with this. If your content's not converting, it's not your fault. Chances are you've been taught to prioritize the algorithm instead of the actual humans reading your words. And that, that ends right here. Go ahead and grab my free guide, Five Quiet Reasons Your Content Isn't Converting and What to Do Instead. It's packed with real talk, practical shifts and quick immediate wins. Link is in the show notes below. And if you're ready to stop guessing and start connecting with ideal clients who actually buy from you, book a free connection call with our team at Kuleana Connect. We don't do content. We do connection that converts. Because at the end of the day, it's not about going viral, it's about being valuable. Thanks for hanging out with me. Again, I'm Cheyanne Cleyman and I'll see you on next week's episode. See you later, boss.