convert-three-locks

# Convert Three Locks - The Persuasion Architecture

> *"Three things must happen - roughly in this order - before someone buys. Think of them as three locks on a door. You need to open all three. Miss one and the door stays closed."* - The Donahoe Method, Framework 3

This skill produces the lock-by-lock blueprint for a conversion asset. Lock 1 (Want), Lock 2 (Trust), Lock 3 (Excuse). All three open or no sale.

The output is the **architecture** the asset writes against. The Open (`convert-open`) leads into Lock 1. The Close (`convert-close`) closes after Lock 3. Everything in between is the locks.

## When to Use

Trigger phrases: "architect the persuasion", "three locks", "donahoe three locks", "want trust excuse", "design the persuasion sequence", "persuasion architecture", "lock by lock plan", "sell the state", `/convert locks <product or brief>`.

Run this skill **after** `convert-four-questions` and `convert-temperature`, and **before** any page-builder. The locks become the section spine of the page.

Do NOT use for:
- Writing the opening hook (use `convert-open`)
- Writing the close itself (use `convert-close`)
- Designing the offer's value structure (use `funnels-offer` - different pack)
- Auditing existing persuasion arcs (use `convert-audit`)

## Inputs

Required:
1. **Four Questions output** (from `convert-four-questions`) - Why You feeds Want; Why Me feeds Trust; Why This + Why Now feed Excuse.
2. **Temperature** (from `convert-temperature`) - calibrates how much weight each lock carries (Cool audiences load Trust heavy; Hot audiences load Excuse heavy).
3. **Offer details** - what they're buying, the price, the guarantee, any bonuses, the format.

Optional:
- **Available proof** - anecdotes, receipts, namechecks (feeds Lock 2 specifically)
- **Section length budget** - how many words / minutes per lock
- **Competing alternatives the reader has considered** - affects how Lock 2 builds Trust around differentiation
- `out_path` - caller-controlled output. Defaults via `build_report_path`.

## The Three Locks (full method)

### Lock 1 - The Want

**Job:** Don't sell the product. Sell the state.

Nobody buys a course. They buy the version of themselves that exists after the course. Nobody buys a supplement. They buy the feeling of waking up with energy. Nobody buys a tool. They buy the result the tool creates.

Paint the state using sensory, visceral language. *"Imagine waking up, checking your phone, and seeing four new sales came in overnight"* is specific and physical. *"Achieve financial freedom"* is a bumper sticker that means nothing.

**The Want comes from specificity.** The more specific the vision, the more real it feels. The more real it feels, the more they want it. The more they want it, the easier everything else becomes.

Specifications:
- Sensory language - sight / sound / feel / motion
- Specific scenes, not abstract states
- Connected to *their* identity and current routine
- Anchors a "before/after" - without explicitly using those words
- Avoids bumper-sticker phrases ("financial freedom", "live your best life", "unlock your potential")

Examples:
- ✓ *"Picture this: it's 7am Tuesday. You're still in bed. You roll over, check your phone, and there are six new sales notifications from the overnight - three of them at the higher tier you didn't think anyone would actually buy. You haven't even brushed your teeth yet and you've already cleared what your last job paid you in a week."*
- ✗ *"Achieve financial freedom and live the lifestyle you deserve."* (zero sensory, dead phrasing)

### Lock 2 - The Trust

**Job:** They want it. Now they need to believe it's actually possible - and that YOU'RE the person to deliver it.

Trust is built through Conversational Proof (`convert-proof`). But it's also built through **voice**. The reader trusts you because you sound like someone who's actually done it. Not reading from a script. Not hedging with qualifiers. Not *"some people have found that..."* - just stating what happened with the quiet certainty of someone who was there.

**Conversational authority IS a trust-building mechanism.** When you speak without hedging, the reader's brain categorizes you as credible. You sound like someone who knows. That's half the work done before you present a single piece of evidence.

Specifications:
- Anchored to specific past results (Receipts) and specific past customers (Anecdotes / Namechecks)
- Drive-By credentials slipped in, never announced
- Voice is unhedged - declarative, first-person, no "some people have found"
- The Because mechanism explains *why* the result is possible, so it doesn't feel miraculous

Trust loads cumulatively:
1. **Skin in Game** (already established in the Open by `convert-open`) - opens the trust account
2. **Anecdote layer** - third-party proof that the same approach works for people like the reader
3. **Receipt layer** - specific numbers that anchor belief
4. **Mechanism layer** - the Because that makes it logical, not magical

### Lock 3 - The Excuse

**Job:** They want it. They believe it. Now they need the logical argument they'll use to explain the purchase to themselves. Or to their spouse. Or to their business partner at the next meeting.

The Excuse is the rational justification for an emotional decision that's already been made.

Specifications:
- Reads almost mathematical
- Reframes the price as small relative to a comparison they accept
- Often lists three alternatives the price equals, to anchor against
- Acknowledges the reader's skepticism explicitly, then solves for it

The Excuse pattern menu:
- **The Already-Spent compare:** *"Think about how much you've already spent on stuff that didn't work..."*
- **The Cost-of-Not compare:** *"This pays for itself if you land even one client from it..."*
- **The Trivial-Equivalent compare:** *"For less than the cost of one client dinner..."*
- **The Hourly Math compare:** *"At your hourly rate, this saves you in week one..."*
- **The Risk-Revers