AI for life science sales and marketing that actually moves revenue. In this episode of Burn The Playbook, Marc Crosby digs in with Matt Wilkinson, founder of Strivenn, on how commercial teams cut through hype and apply AI where it matters: personas, buying groups, objection prep, and sales practice that sticks.

What you’ll learn

• How “persona AI” turns real LinkedIn and VOC data into a usable synthetic customer
• A simple way to map buying groups and pressure-test your pitch with role play
• Where AI helps most in product launch, ABM, and key account management
• Why ungating content now matters for search and AI bots
• How to prep objections with custom assistants and stay human in the loop
• “Moments over funnels” and what that means for 2026 GTM planning
• Practical tools Matt uses: Claude, ChatGPT, Humantic, Yoodli, Notebook LM

Chapters
00:00 Welcome and setup
00:30 Meet Matt Wilkinson and Strivenn
01:29 When ChatGPT changed the game
03:24 Science mindset for using AI
05:21 Persona AI explained
07:10 Synthetic buyers and role play
08:05 From product to marketing to sales
09:32 Mapping stakeholders
10:18 Objection prep with custom assistants
11:30 KAM board work and AI’s impact
13:18 Big obstacles: data, maturity, fear
15:00 Policies, “secret cyborgs,” and guardrails
17:45 Showing value and time savings
19:31 Repeatable assets reps will use
19:39 Favorite tools for sales enablement
21:41 Buying group mastery and practice
23:55 2025–2026 outlook for life sciences
26:17 Notebook LM for learning and policy chatbots
26:46 Moments over funnels
28:51 Rapid fire: the takes that matter
35:46 Burn one habit, build one for 2026
36:28 Where to find Matt + 2026 speaking

Who this helps

• Life science commercial leaders and KAM teams
• B2B marketers running ABM and launches
• Founders building GTM in technical markets
• Sales enablement leaders installing AI the right way

Guest

• Matt Wilkinson, Founder, Strivenn | Website: https://www.striven.com | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-wilkinson/

Host

• Burn The Playbook Podcast — Digital Rebels Consulting: https://DigitalRebelsConsulting.com
• Host: Marc Crosby

AI for life sciences, persona AI, buying group mapping, key account management, ABM, objection handling, sales role play, Notebook LM, Claude, ChatGPT, Humantic, Yoodli, moments over funnels, commercial data readiness, AI policy, synthetic customers, B2B marketing, sales enablement, life science GTM, 2026 GTM planning

1: Persona AI that isn’t fluff. Real data. Real buyers. #LifeSciences

2: Map the buying group and stress-test your pitch. #SalesEnablement

3: Ungate content so humans and bots can find you. #B2BMarketing

4: Objection prep with custom assistants in minutes. #SalesTips

5: Moments over funnels. Win where decisions happen. #GTM

• Website → DigitalRebelsConsulting.com
• Linktree → https://linktr.ee/digitalrebelsconsulting
• Socials → Follow us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/marcccrosby
• Email → marc@digitalrebelsconsulting.com
• Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/burn-the-playbook/id1828969451
• Burn The Playbook Website → https://www.buzzsprout.com/2522863

Views expressed are our own and do not represent any organizations

© 2025 Digital Rebels Consulting. All rights reserved.

B2B sales has flipped. Buyers complete most of the journey before you show up, and GenAI is doing the research. In this episode, Graham Hawkins explains how to win in a buyer-led era with GEO, deep selling, and agentic tools that cut wasted effort.

Original release of this episode, July 25th 2025

Graham Hawkins Bio
With more than 34 years of business experience in executive B2B sales and sales leadership roles, Graham Hawkins is a highly experienced business executive with proven strengths in strategic business development, go-to-market planning, and sales and marketing.

Graham has worked in the UK, Australia and across Asia Pacific as a representative of some of the world’s most innovative IT, telecommunications, finance and media organisations. Graham has an MBA (Exec) (Distinction) from RMIT and is a member of Golden Key International Honour Society for high-performing business students. Graham is also a part-time lecturer and student mentor in the RMIT Executive MBA Program.

Graham has extensive experience in developing, mentoring and leading highly successful sales teams while driving multi-channel sales engagement strategies that dovetail with the new Age of the Customer.

Today, Graham is the Founder & CEO of SalesTribe, and Co-Founder of the world’s first AI-Guided Selling platform – Qoos.ai.

What you’ll learn

• What buyer-led really means and why discovery must change
• How Generative Engine Optimization gets you into GPT results
• Why 60–70% of buying tasks will be automated by 2027 and what to do
• Flipped funnel: land, prove value, expand
• Customer-verified pipeline vs gut-feel forecasting
• Multi-threading across 11+ stakeholders without spamming
• Win-loss analysis that actually informs change
• High-fit, high-intent targeting to stop chasing ghosts
• Practical AI stack for sellers: research, mapping, digital sales rooms
• How sales leadership, comp, and coaching must evolve

Who this helps

• B2B founders, CROs, VPs of Sales
• RevOps and sales managers moving off activity quotas
• SDRs and AEs selling into complex accounts
• Marketers shifting from SEO to GEO

Guest

• Graham Hawkins, Founder & CEO, SalesTribe; CEO & Co-founder, Qoos.ai
• Websites: https://www.salestribe.com | https://qoos.ai
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/futureofsales/

Host

• Burn The Playbook Podcast by Digital Rebels Consulting
• https://DigitalRebelsConsulting.com

B2B sales; buyer led; deep selling; GEO; Generative Engine Optimization; customer verified pipeline; flipped funnel; multi threading; win loss analysis; intent data; account based selling; Perplexity; Sales Navigator; trumpet digital sales room; Qoos.ai; SalesTribe; Marc Crosby; Graham Hawkins; RevOps; enterprise sales; sales coaching; next best action; agentic AI; CRM stages; manufacturing sales; LinkedIn Top Voice

• Website → DigitalRebelsConsulting.com
• Linktree → https://linktr.ee/digitalrebelsconsulting
• Socials → Follow us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/marcccrosby
• Email → marc@digitalrebelsconsulting.com
• Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/burn-the-playbook/id1828969451
• Burn The Playbook Website → https://www.buzzsprout.com/2522863

Views expressed are our own and do not represent any organizations

© 2025 Digital Rebels Consulting. All rights reserved.

Gap Prospecting that gets replies. Keenan breaks down problem-centric outbound, the Problem Identification Chart, and how to write messages that create intrigue and interest. If you’re stuck in activity theater, this flips the script. Keenan is the CEO of A Sales Growth Company, a Forbes Top 50 Social Seller, and one of the most cited sales experts in the world. He wrote Not Taught and the bestselling Gap Selling, with his new book Gap Prospecting dropping in 2026. His firm was also named a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Gartner® Market Guide for Sales Training Service Providers, Worldwide.

What you’ll learn

• Who Gap Prospecting is for and why now
• Problem-centric selling vs product-centric habits
• The three-layer enablement model: skills, opportunity, forecast
• How to run a great discovery without scripts
• The Problem Identification Chart: problems, impacts, root causes
• Symptoms vs catalysts and how to spot them
• Intrigue→Interest: writing emails buyers answer
• Where AI helps prospecting…and where it makes it worse
• Burn it or build it: rapid takes on quotas, video, texting, gifting, breakup emails

Chapters
00:30 Welcome, guest intro
01:05 Who Gap Prospecting is for
02:39 Why a prospecting book now
04:31 Why coauthoring this time
05:25 The Problem-Centric Operating System
10:36 Where companies blow enablement
12:38 What makes discovery questions good
17:16 The Problem Identification Chart (PIC)
22:22 Has this changed since 2020?
23:22 AI and prospecting: help or harm
31:25 Unexpected lessons: symptoms & catalysts
32:42 Burn it or Build it: 10 hot takes
41:32 One contrarian move for Q1 win rate
42:48 Where to find Gap Prospecting info
43:06 Close

Who this helps

• CROs, VPs Sales, and founders with an outbound motion
• SDRs, BDRs, and AEs who prospect
• RevOps and Enablement leaders building repeatable systems
• Marketers supporting pipeline with outbound signals

Guest

• Keenan, CEO, Sales Growth Company
• Website: salesgrowth.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkeenan/

Host

• Burn The Playbook Podcast — Digital Rebels Consulting
• https://DigitalRebelsConsulting.com
• Marc Crosby — https://linktr.ee/digitalrebelsconsulting

Keywords
gap prospecting, gap selling, problem centric selling, problem identification chart, discovery questions, sales enablement layers, skills layer, opportunity layer, forecasting layer, symptoms and catalysts, intrigue and interest emails, outbound strategy, SDR prospecting, BDR prospecting, AI in sales, breakup emails, video prospecting, multithreading, daily activity quotas, buyer intent

Hashtags
#GapProspecting #GapSelling #Sales #Prospecting #B2B #Outbound #SalesLeadership #BurnThePlaybook #DigitalRebels

gap prospecting; gap selling; keenan; problem centric selling; problem identification chart; PIC; discovery questions; ou

• Website → DigitalRebelsConsulting.com
• Linktree → https://linktr.ee/digitalrebelsconsulting
• Socials → Follow us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/marcccrosby
• Email → marc@digitalrebelsconsulting.com
• Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/burn-the-playbook/id1828969451
• Burn The Playbook Website → https://www.buzzsprout.com/2522863

Views expressed are our own and do not represent any organizations

© 2025 Digital Rebels Consulting. All rights reserved.