The principle. Once people commit to something — especially out loud or in writing — their brain works overtime to stay consistent with it. Going back feels like contradicting themselves, not you.
The micro-yes ladder. Don't ask for the big yes cold. Stack 3-5 small yeses on the way in.
"Sounds like growth is the priority this year — fair to say?" → "Yes." "And the bottleneck right now is [X]?" → "Yes." "If we could fix [X] in 60 days without disrupting the team, that'd be worth a real conversation?" → "Yes."
By the close, "no" would mean reversing 4 of their own statements. Brains hate that.
Public > private. A commitment said out loud or written down sticks 5-10x harder than a thought one. "Just so I have it right — let me write down what you just said about the goal" → now it's on paper and they own it.
Where it fails. Skipping the small yeses and going straight to a big ask. Or asking for yeses they don't really mean — fake commitments crumble at the close.
Pair with the summary close. Restating their own commitments in sequence is the cleanest close in the book.