Wins Plus Peer
Pair a prospect's desired win with borrowed trust to earn attention
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 98%
Wins Plus Peer is a pitch formula for overcoming the scepticism attached to cold outreach. First, identify a win the prospect actually values, such as saving time, making money, saving money, or looking good. A win alone is insufficient because an unknown seller making a large promise sounds like every other caller. Add a peer, mutual contact, customer, business, or familiar brand the prospect already trusts. Explain how that trusted reference received the relevant win, then request a small conversation rather than forcing a sale. The mechanism is borrowed credibility: the trusted relationship validates the messenger by proxy, making the proposed benefit more believable and giving the prospect a reason to listen.
Origin
Richard Moore presents the formula while explaining how to earn attention in a cold sales pitch.
Core principles
- 01Lead with a concrete benefit for the prospect
- 02A benefit without credibility sounds like a big claim
- 03Borrow trust from a mutual person, respected business, or known brand
- 04Research creates relevance before the conversation starts
How to run it
- 1
Choose the win
Identify the outcome that matters most to this prospect, such as saved time, increased revenue, reduced cost, or improved status.
Pro tip Use evidence from the prospect's role or recent activity rather than a generic benefit.
Watch out Do not make a broad promise that you cannot support.
- 2
Find trusted proximity
Find a mutual person, credible customer, respected company, or familiar brand with relevance to the prospect.
Pro tip A genuine mutual contact is stronger than a famous but irrelevant brand.
Watch out Never imply a relationship or endorsement that does not exist.
- 3
Join proof to benefit
Briefly explain the result you produced for the trusted reference and connect it to the prospect's likely need.
Pro tip Keep the proof concrete and easy to verify.
Watch out Do not let the background story bury the prospect's win.
- 4
Request a small next step
Ask for a short coffee, call, or exploratory conversation rather than an immediate purchase.
Pro tip Make the request proportionate to how little trust has been earned so far.
Watch out Do not treat borrowed trust as permission to pressure the prospect.
In the wild
A consultant contacts a department head after working with the head's business development manager for two years. Instead of opening with a product description, the consultant says the manager used the service to save time on business leads and asks for a short coffee to explore whether the same result could help the department head.
→ The mutual relationship validates the consultant and makes a short exploratory meeting reasonable.
Common mistakes
Making the big fat claim
Leading with an unsupported promise such as making the prospect lots of money triggers scepticism instead of interest.
Using irrelevant social proof
A recognisable name does not help unless the prospect understands why that reference supports the promised win.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for researched outbound pitches where the seller has a credible connection or reference.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the claimed win or borrowed credibility cannot be substantiated.
From the transcript
“wins plus peer or mutual equals interest straight away”
“I'm validated by proxy”
“that little extra bit of research you know can go a long way”
From the episode
Richard Moore on The Laws of Selling