Escalation of commitment
When qualifying a lead with a low-stakes initial question.
Why it works
We tend to continue down a path once we have made an initial small investment of time or belief. Getting a tiny 'yes' to a simple question makes them more likely to agree to a larger meeting later.
Example
Is this a priority for your team at all this quarter?
An illustration of the mechanism, not a template. Copied verbatim it stops being persuasion and starts being the pattern everyone else is already sending.
Is your sequence pulling this one?
Paste it in and find out which levers are working, which are missing, and which single zero is capping the whole message.