Sales Progression
Sales progression is everything that happens after the offer is accepted.
It runs from offer accepted to completion. It is where around a quarter of agreed sales are lost, and where your most experienced people spend half their week.
123 days
Average time from sale agreed to exchange
6 to 12 months
A typical Prime Central London chain
55%
Of a negotiator day spent chasing the chain
23.7%
Agreed UK sales that collapse in this window
What it involves
The work nobody notices until something goes wrong.
An agreed sale is not a completed one. Between the handshake and completion there are solicitors, brokers, surveyors, lenders and local authorities, and each of them works to their own timetable. Sales progression is the job of keeping all of them moving. When it goes well nobody notices. When it goes wrong, a deal everyone thought was done falls apart.
It is the least glamorous part of the job and the most expensive part to get wrong. In Prime Central London one collapse can cost a six figure commission after months of work.
Why it takes so much time
Nobody can hold all of it in their head.
A negotiator now spends more than half the working day chasing other people. The reason is simple enough. Keeping track of every party on every live deal, for months at a time, is more than anyone can hold in their head. Something always gets missed, and it is often the deal that looked safe.
The usual answer is another dashboard. A screen that shows status does not chase anyone, though. It just adds one more thing to check.
Another way to run it
Let something else do the watching.
Alunio checks every deal every hour, scores each one for risk, and flags the one that has started to drift before your client notices. When a deal needs a push, the chase is already drafted, with the name of the party holding it up and the date they owe you. You read it and send it.
It is built for boutique agencies in Prime Central London. You can read more about why deals fall through, or about how it differs from a tracking dashboard.
See it on your own book
See where progression is costing you.
Apply for a founding seat and Alunio will score your live deals on the first call. You will see where progression is costing you time and deals.
Apply for a founding seatCommon questions
What is sales progression in estate agency?
Sales progression is the work that happens after a sale is agreed. It means chasing solicitors, brokers, surveyors and lenders to move the deal from offer accepted through to exchange and completion. It is the period in which around one in four agreed UK sales falls through.
Why is sales progression so time consuming?
A negotiator now spends around 55% of the working day chasing rather than selling. Every party has to be tracked and prompted, and then prompted again, across timelines that in Prime Central London can run six to twelve months. The volume is more than memory and spreadsheets can cope with.
Can sales progression run itself?
Not entirely, and it should not. The watching and the drafting can be done for you, though. Alunio scores every deal for risk and writes the chase to the party holding it up. The negotiator reads it, approves it and sends it, and the relationship stays with the negotiator.