Episode
Beyond the Sales Playbook: The #1 Skill for Getting Ahead in Tech with Emma Maslen
- Podcast
- Hunters and Unicorns
- Published
- Nov 19, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3679
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Summary
In this episode of the Great Leaders UK series, we welcome Emma Maslen, author, angel investor, and founder of inspir'em. Emma draws on her successful career in large organizations like SAP and BMC to discuss the crucial difference between theoretical playbooks and their real-world, behavioral application. She stresses that the playbook is a framework to drive curiosity and risk mitigation, not a tick-box exercise. Emma also shares why networking is a constant professional necessity, detailing the common mistakes people make and how leaders can intentionally build their networks to gain knowledge and accelerate their careers. 🙌 Thanks to Our Sponsors! PGAI: https://www.getpg.ai Selr: https://selr.ai 🏹 Key Topics Covered 01:40 - What's inspir'em? 03:06 - It's about curiosity, not checklists 04:36 - The flaw of the "100% Med-Pic score" 06:50 - Why the playbook can't be a preach 11:09 - Leaders not present during sales training 12:05 - Verbalizing questions and intentionally 14:13 - Customizing the discovery process 16:48 - Discovery is a Two-Way Dating Process 18:05 - Career Shift from corporate MD 25:37 - The Power of Networking 30:50 - Good vs. Bad Networking 35:51 - Networking for internal success. 41:05 - The value of community 51:37 - The value of coaching 💥 3 Biggest Lessons: The Playbook is a Framework for Curiosity, Not a Checklist: When Meddic, Med-PICC, or any framework becomes a mere tick-box exercise, it becomes pointless. It should instead function as a tool to continuously drive curiosity, expose risks in your pipeline, and prompt deeper questions. Winning Requires Leadership Buy-In (Not Dictation): Sales training fails when executives and leaders see it as something "done to the sales team," often not even attending the training themselves. Successful adop…