J.R. Ewing was shot in the final episode of season three of the hit TV show Dallas. For eight months until the show re-aired and the perpetrator was revealed, there was a media frenzy with everyone speculating “who dunnit.”

That particular episode represented one of the all-time great cliffhangers in television history.

Cliffhangers are extensively used in media. A radio host will tease what is coming up in the next segment right before a commercial break. Not only are cliffhangers used before every commercial break on television, but mini cliffhangers are used during the show.

One plot line will be established, and a conflict will arise. Still, before that conflict is resolved, the director will cut away and start another plot line and a conflict, leave that unresolved, cut to another plot line, and then jump back and resolve the conflict in the first plot line.

This causes the viewers to keep watching the show because they need a resolution. Cliffhangers create tension that can only be released through the resolution.

In selling, we call this creating “open loops,” they are very powerful, although few people use them properly or even know about them.

Creating open loops in your sales presentation will keep your audience engaged throughout. This is mission-critical today because attention spans are so short.

Properly utilized open loops can also dramatically increase your sales. For example, let’s say I’m doing a presentation to sell a webinar training program, and I tell you that there are three important things you need to do to get maximum registrations, but I only tell you one of them, you want to know what the other two are. So when I get to the close and explain that I go over all three things in my training program, you are more likely to buy because you want to “close the open loop” I created inside your brain.

Kick butt, make mucho DEEnero!

Dave “Cliffhanger” Dee