7 Ways to keep your Vendors Happy
October 8, 2015
We all want to keep our vendors from wandering off to another agent down the street, but sometimes we forget how. Here are some quick tips to help you keep your vendor loyal, and very happy!
- Keep your promises – do what you say you will, when you say you will, and that’s all most vendors will ever ask of you. Don’t promise to call them back that day then ring them in the morning with an apology; instead, call them that day without fail and ask if it would be ok to speak in the morning.
- Keep in touch – I see many unhappy vendors every year who bemoan the fact that their agent never contacts them. It doesn’t take much; make a note of three things you can talk to them about – the interest (or even lack of it) in their property, any local property sales, and the current market conditions. Even if you really feel you have nothing to say to them, call them and ask how they are – they will appreciate the gesture.
- Feed back positively – Don’t make your vendors feel that their house isn’t good enough or they have been greedy with their hoped-for asking price. Give them a ‘feedback sandwich’ (sometimes called something slightly less polite!) – start with telling them something positive, then deliver any bad news you have with sensitivity, then end with an upbeat comment. As Maya Angelou once said “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”
- Tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth – if you lie about anything at all, it will come back to haunt you. Little lies (sorry I’m late, I was stuck in traffic) have a habit of turning into big lies (there was an accident on the main road) and you will get found out. Just tell the truth (really sorry – I left the office later than I intended to) and your vendor will trust you more in the long term.
- Be visible – often a vendor will say to me “My agent isn’t doing anything to sell my house – I never hear from him”. These two facts may not be linked at all, but in the client’s mind they are, and that’s all that matters. Make sure they know exactly what you’re doing as often as possible. Copy them in on emails, drop them a note every time they are in the paper or you have called your applicants. Just be visible.
- Stay real – above all else, you are a real person, and so are they. Don’t be ‘agent-versus-vendor’, think instead of ‘Joe helping Anne’. Be kind and don’t be afraid to be yourself.
- Keep their goals in mind – find out why they are moving and keep this goal in your mind, always. Refer to it in every conversation and email you have with them. It will not only help you to stay on track and motivated, your vendor will love you for it, and stay loyal to you.
Have I missed any out? Do you have a fab vendor-pleasing tip you could share with my readers? Please leave a comment, or if you’re shy, email me at sam@home-truths.co.uk
What to read next: How do you get those WOW images?
What to do next: Do you get my Supertips? They’re jam-packed full of great tips and marketing strategies, and best still – they’re free! Get yours here -> www.samashdown.co.uk/supertips
Speak to Sam: If you’d like to know how I think you could improve your marketing, just answer a few short questions here and I’ll tell you if and how you could be more effective.
You May Also Enjoy
Housing Insight Report: June 2026
June’s housing market remained active, but buyers and renters continued to show caution. Buyer registrations dipped, while sales agreed remained broadly stable. In lettings, demand continued to outstrip supply, with nine applicants per available property. The average number of new prospective buyers registered per member branch dipped during June 2026, with an average of 55.…
Read More 
Private rent and house prices, UK: August 2026
Main points Average UK monthly private rent increased by 3.7%, to £1,393, in the 12 months to July 2026 (provisional estimate); this annual growth rate is up from 3.3% in the 12 months to June 2026. Average rents increased to £1,451 (3.8%) in England, £843 (4.5%) in Wales, and £1,016 (1.7%) in Scotland, in the…
Read More 
Scrapping Stamp Duty could unlock 300,000 extra home moves a year
Economic growth in key regions, such as around Cambridge and the ‘tech corridor’ being held back by stagnant housing market. Rathbones argues that a more mobile housing market could help unlock part of the UK’s £5.5 trillion housing wealth. Reforming Britain’s property tax system could unlock more than 300,000 additional housing transactions each year…
Read More 
New-build property across Great Britain increased in price
The average house price for a new-build property across Great Britain increased to £501,658 in July 2026. The West Midlands recorded the largest average price increase, with the average new-build house price rising to £418,281 in July 2026. Yorkshire and Humberside recorded the smallest average increase, with the average house price rising to £347,846 in…
Read More 
Where London leavers are paying a premium for green space
New research from UK Property Development (UKPD shows that Essex, Kent and Hertfordshire command the highest green space premiums among London’s commuter counties, with homebuyers paying a premium of up to 15.3% to live within a stone’s throw of public green space. UKPD has compared the average asking price of properties for sale within…
Read More Breaking Property News 18/8/26
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X. Removing inefficiency that comes from humans having to understand where every piece of information lives Thought Leadership by Fredérick Wakim, Founder of ImmoAdmin “For most of the software era, making a property management platform better meant adding something to it. Another dashboard. Another…
Read More