Sales progression is everything that happens between an offer being accepted and the sale reaching exchange and completion.
Agreeing the sale is really only the beginning. From there, buyers and sellers need to instruct solicitors, paperwork needs to be issued, searches ordered, mortgages progressed, enquiries raised and answered, and everyone in the chain eventually needs to be ready at the same time.
Somebody needs to keep track of all of that. That's sales progression.
For an estate agent, it means knowing where the sale has reached, what's outstanding, who needs chasing and what needs to happen next. It also means keeping the buyer and seller informed while all of that is going on.
What does a sales progressor actually do?
The exact job varies between agencies, but the principle is fairly simple: keep the transaction moving and make sure things don't get forgotten.
A sales progressor will usually be speaking regularly with the buyer, seller, solicitors, mortgage broker and other agents in the chain. They'll keep track of the legal work, mortgage and wider chain, and follow up when something appears to have stalled.
On any given transaction that might mean checking whether the buyer has instructed their solicitor, finding out whether the draft contract has been issued, chasing confirmation that searches have been ordered, checking where enquiries have reached or speaking to another agent to find out what's happening further up the chain.
As exchange gets closer, the focus changes again. Are enquiries satisfied? Is the mortgage offer in? Has everyone returned their signed paperwork? Is the rest of the chain ready? Are completion dates being discussed?
None of those jobs sounds particularly complicated on its own. The difficulty is keeping track of all of them at once.
There's also a lot of explaining
Sales progression isn't just chasing solicitors.
For most buyers and sellers, moving home isn't something they do very often. Terms like draft contracts, enquiries, management packs, searches and exchange are completely normal to somebody working in property, but not necessarily to the person going through the process.
A good progressor gives clients some context around what's happening.
If searches are taking three weeks, what does that actually mean? If another round of enquiries has been raised, is something wrong? If their solicitor hasn't contacted them for a week, should they be concerned?
Often the useful update isn't that something has changed. It's explaining what we're waiting for and what happens when it arrives.
That makes a big difference to how a sale feels from the client's side.
Then there's the chain
A sale rarely exists completely on its own.
Your seller may also be buying. Their seller may be buying somewhere else. At the bottom of the chain there might be a first-time buyer, and at the top somebody might be moving into rented accommodation.
All of those transactions eventually need to line up.
That means progressing your own sale isn't enough. You also need a reasonable picture of what's happening elsewhere in the chain.
If your transaction is ready to exchange but another sale further up is still waiting for searches, the chain isn't ready. Knowing that early means you can set expectations properly and speak to the relevant agent rather than repeatedly chasing people on your own transaction who aren't actually holding anything up.
Who normally handles sales progression?
Different agencies handle it in different ways.
Some have a dedicated sales progressor or progression team. Once an offer is accepted, the negotiator hands the transaction over and the progressor looks after it through to exchange.
In other agencies, the negotiator who agrees the sale continues progressing it themselves. That keeps the relationship with one person, but it also means progression has to fit around viewings, valuations, negotiating new offers and everything else happening in the branch.
There is also the option of outsourcing it. A specialist progression company takes over the day-to-day work while the estate agency remains the client's agent.
None of those models is automatically the right one. The important thing is that somebody has clear responsibility for the transaction and enough visibility to know what needs doing.
Why does sales progression take so much time?
It isn't usually one enormous task.
It's five minutes here and ten minutes there, repeated across every sale for several months.
You email a solicitor and make a note to follow up. A buyer calls with a question. Another agent gives you a chain update. A broker confirms the valuation has happened. A seller sends something their solicitor needs. Three days later, you need to remember which of those conversations required another chase.
Now multiply that across an entire pipeline.
That's where the workload comes from. A progressor isn't simply keeping track of 30 sales. They're keeping track of dozens of individual things happening across those 30 sales, all moving at different speeds.
The actual phone call or email might take two minutes. Remembering that it needs to happen is often the harder part.
What does good sales progression look like?
Good progression shouldn't mean chasing everybody constantly.
It means knowing when something actually needs chasing.
If searches are due back next Wednesday, there's little point chasing them every morning until then. If Wednesday passes and they're still outstanding, that's different.
Likewise, if a solicitor said they'd review replies within three working days, you want somebody to notice when those three days have passed. If a buyer hasn't returned something their solicitor needs, you want to know about it before another week disappears.
The best progression is proactive without becoming noise. People are contacted when there's a reason to contact them, clients know what's happening and files that need attention don't sit unnoticed.
Why we've built TSP around this
A lot of traditional sales progression relies on somebody remembering what needs doing next.
That works reasonably well when there are a handful of sales. It becomes much harder when an agency has dozens moving at the same time.
We don't think software should replace the person progressing the sale. Most of the important parts of the job are conversations, judgement and relationships.
What software can do very well is keep track of everything around them.
TSP records where each side of the transaction has reached, what we're waiting for, when somebody was last contacted and what needs attention next. Buyers and sellers can see their own progress, while the team gets one place to see what's happening across the entire pipeline.
The progressor still progresses the sale. They just don't have to hold every next step in their head.
That's ultimately what good sales progression comes down to: know where the sale is, know what it's waiting for, and know what needs to happen next.