--- title: Why You Must Control the Process for Your Dream Client | The Sales Blog description: If there is one thing that I wrote in The Lost Art of Closing that causes people to ask questions, it is the idea that you must control the process. image: https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/process.jpg --- ### [Now booking SKO meetings for 2026/27! 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Some have asked me if that means they need to deploy high pressure, hard sell tactics. First, there is no reason to do anything that subtracts from trust. Ever. More still, to do so would go against the approach and [the methodology](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/your-sales-process-or-methodology-is-broken) that makes up the rest of the book. A few have asked me if controlling the process means holding their prospect to their sales process. This is also not the idea I am presenting in the book. While it is helpful to have a sales process, all the things you need to accomplish between target and close, often too much is missing. The Lost Art of Closing closes this gap. Let me share more. How often does your dream client change providers? Is it once every ten years? Is it once every three years? Unless you sell something with little or no switching costs, where one provider is as good as the other, and switching comes with little to no risk, the odds are high that they haven’t made the decision more than a couple times in their life. This means that the people on your dream client’s team don’t have a lot of experience buying what it is that you sell. They don’t know what they don’t know, and they don’t have some well-designed process for thinking through their decision unless they have an RFP, which is a process that is so technical in nature that it makes it even more unlikely that they make a good decision. You, on the other hand, have helped a lot of companies explore change, collaborate on the right solution, get the consensus of their team, make the right investment decision, and resolve their concerns (a few of the 10 commitments in the Lost Art of Closing). Because you have greater experience, it only makes sense that you should be guiding the process to ensure that the company makes a good decision and that they achieve the outcomes they need. This is what makes you consultative, a trusted advisor, a value creator. If you want to make a difference and help people produce better results, you have to control the process. This is the opposite of [controlling the outcome](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/how-owning-outcomes-creates-greater-value), which is what a high pressure, hard sell approach would require. To control the process, you need skillful means for having the right conversations, even when they are difficult. ###### Tags: [Sales](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/sales) [2017](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/tag/2017) Post by [Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/author/anthony-iannarino) on December 28, 2017 Written and edited by human brains and human hands. ![Anthony Iannarino](https://www.thesalesblog.com/hubfs/ai-blog-profile-crop.jpg) Anthony Iannarino is an American writer. He has published daily at [thesalesblog.com](https://www.thesalesblog.com) for more than 14 years, amassing over 5,300 articles and making this platform a destination for salespeople and sales leaders. Anthony is also the author of four best-selling books documenting modern sales methodologies and a fifth book for sales leaders seeking revenue growth. His latest book for an even wider audience is titled, The Negativity Fast: Proven Techniques to Increase Positivity, Reduce Fear, and Boost Success. Anthony speaks to sales organizations worldwide, delivering cutting-edge sales strategies and tactics that work in this ever-evolving B2B landscape. He also provides workshops and seminars. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn, X or Youtube. 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What we’re doing right now **is working**, even in this challenging economy. **Would you like some help?** [![Solve for Sales](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/2922376/d3a4938b-2008-4a27-8b44-7b2223f6d035) ### Join my Weekly Newsletter for Sales Tips Join 100,000+ sales professionals in my weekly newsletter and get my *Guide to Becoming a Sales Hustler* eBook for FREE! --- ```json { "@context" : "http://schema.org/", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Anthony Iannarino" }, "dateModified" : "2023-02-22T10:47:03 AM", "datePublished" : "2017-12-28 11:59:33", "description" : "If there is one thing that I wrote in The Lost Art of Closing that causes people to ask questions, it is the idea that you must control the process.", "headline" : "Why You Must Control the Process for Your Dream Client", "image" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 16, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/2922376/Image/favicon.ico", "width" : 16 }, "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://www.thesalesblog.com/blog/why-you-must-control-the-process-for-your-dream-client", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "name" : "Why You Must Control the Process for Your Dream Client", "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 24, "url" : "https://f.hubspotusercontent20.net/hubfs/2922376/TSB/images/TSB%20Logo%20Dark.svg", "width" : 228 }, "name" : "The Sales Blog" } } ```