Save this article
Use this article for free on your own website
Republish this article for free on your own website or blog. Or search or browse for more articles that your audience will appreciate. Huge choice available. Ideal for finding quality, free content. Read our publishers guide.
Persuade With The Temporal Loop Pattern
The language pattern is a powerful technique for getting what you want. The 'temporal pattern loop' is especially potent in persuasion.
The language pattern is a powerful technique for getting what you want. The ‘temporal pattern loop’ is especially potent in persuasion.
When we open loops in the minds of our prospects, it creates a tiny vacuum that the prospect really wants to have filled.
There are three really powerful things you need to know in order to understand how to use loops: Number one, people need to have closure. They can’t stand to have balls up in the air. They need to have the balls land. They need closure, a yes or a no.
An example in sales of the prospect keeping an open loop with the sales person is that dreaded phrase, “I’ll need to think it over.” You want to either end it or don’t end it. Either say yes, or say no, but don’t tell me you want to think it over.
The second thing you need to know about open loops is that when your prospect doesn’t get that closure, their potential to respond increases.
That’s all you’ll ever need to know about loops.
But wait a minute… didn’t I say there were three things? I did. I told you that there are three powerful things you need to know in order to understand loops and I only gave you two. Isn’t that frustrating?
People need closure. And when they don’t get it, their response potential is increased.
So are you still asking yourself what the third thing is. .. well, there isn’t a third thing.
Sorry. There is no number three. There are only two things you need to know about loops.
Why would I do that? Because by leaving a loop open, by purposefully leaving the third blank, I increased your response potential and piqued your interest.
Think about something you know really well. Just as an example, let’s say you’re pretty sure you know all there is to know about the Civil War. Say you’re a real history buff and there’s nothing you don’t know about that period of time in that section of the world.
What if someone was teaching a class about the Civil War and there was some new information? Well, how could there be? You know everything. All your loops regarding the Civil War are closed.
People get anxious with open loops and they make them sit forward and try to figure out what’s going on, what’s missing. I told you there were three powerful things you needed to know but only told you two. For many readers, this was a lure they wanted to follow up on and the knowledge of the third thing was going to satisfy this anxiousness.
Now, if you were just skimming and weren’t paying attention, it may not have had that effect on your conscious mind, but it did have it on your other-than-conscious mind.
With open loops, people begin to believe they don’t know as much as they thought they knew about a subject. This works to your advantage. When people ‘know everything’ they tend to go away and not come back. Why stick around if they’ve gotten everything out of the interaction?