The real estate market in Australia is currently going through a major transformation – and with such change and uncertainty for the future comes a variety of challenges for agents and vendors alike.
Any agent will agree that vendor feedback management in real estate can prove difficult at times. Without a solid communication strategy, misunderstandings or uninformed decisions can arise – especially if you need to have a tough conversation with your seller.
The golden rule in a changing market is: An informed seller will make an informed decision, and an uninformed seller will make an uninformed decision.
To help guide you through your vendor management journey, Aaron Shiner and the team at LockedOn have prepared some simple tips and tricks to improve your vendor communication, have vendors listen to (and action) your professional recommendations, and improve your overall level of service to your sellers. Let’s get started!
Create detailed vendor reports
A thorough, detailed vendor report (or vendor portal, for those using LockedOn) is the most important part of an effective vendor communication strategy. These reports provide all the necessary information to your seller to make a much more informed decision on the progress of their sale and give you a solid base to work from when providing recommendations. Here are some of the key details to include in your reports:
Direct buyer feedback
This is the buyer name and their feedback. Many agents dilute or “massage” this feedback so as to not offend the seller, but this strategy is flawed as it is not giving the true picture of their campaign. You don’t want to be a “vendor defender” – it’s important to give real feedback to your seller. This can be difficult as some sellers see that feedback as coming from YOU, not from a buyer – so a simple way to differentiate this is to simply put the buyers quote in italics. This separates your feedback from buyer feedback
Internet benchmarks
This includes web hits from the portals as well as average hits (so they can see if their property is performing above or below the typical average), as well as email enquiries
Days on market
How their property is performing compared to averages
Trending news
Include trending news articles regarding the market, clearance rates, or the area in general, that can highlight the trends in your area and how this may be affecting their campaign
Price range from buyers
Show the low and high price range from buyers
Agent recommendations and advice
A sentence or two explaining what you see happening and what your recommendations are.
Inform your sellers (the right way)
With effective reporting back to your seller, you can avoid “knee-jerk” reactions – and allow your seller to see the full picture of their campaign through data and market feedback, so they can take your professional advice on marketing plans, or accepting an offer, on board.
Before you pick up the phone to speak with your vendor, send your vendor report (or update their portal) with the latest information, and give them time to digest it. It is the difference between “react” versus “respond” – in a tough conversation with a seller, you are unlikely to get a logical response with updates coming solely from you in a single phone call.
If the seller has had time to digest a detailed vendor report followed by your recommendations, you are much more likely to have a constructive conversation about the next stage of their campaign.
Vendor management in LockedOn
LockedOn includes a number of vendor management tools within the CRM – including detailed vendor reports and the 24/7 vendor portal system, which keeps your vendors up-to-date 24 hours a day, and alerts you when your sellers open the portal – so you know when best to reach out.
If you’re already a LockedOn member, click here to check out our tutorial on the vendor portal. If you are looking for a powerful real estate software solution to help manage your vendors effectively and list and sell more property, click here to book a demo with the LockedOn team. List and sell!
