This was a change I made that finally pushed my deadlift past the 700 range. Since I was a really crappy deadlifter I quit trying to mimic the training of guys that were built for deadlifting. My leverages dictated that I needed to train the deadlift in a way that allowed it to "come to me" in a way.
This meant training it in an explosive manner most of the time, with sub-maximal loading, and picking some spots here and there to pull in the near-maximal range. I spent most of my deadlifting work within the 70-80% range for my sets of 3-5 reps. Working sets were never more than 2.
My goal for each training block was to work up to 90% of my goal and pull it for a very explosive triple. Without fail, if I could smash 90% of my goal for a fast triple, I'd hit my goal PR later with some room to spare.
Gary Homann isn't your garden variety weightlifter. Sure, he's 180 pounds at 6% body fat. Sure, he had the best 500 meter indoor rowing time in the world last year in his class and he's been an ACSM certified health and fitness instructor for the past nine years. But Gary's also got a Master's degree in applied health psychology and is currently working on finishing his Ph.D. in psychology.
Eric Cressey is like a Swiss cheese in a sea of Gorgonzola... oh, forget it. We were trying to come up with an analogy that was at least half as good as the training analogies Eric uses in this article, but we failed. Luckily, Eric was spot on.