Matthew Dixon, PH.D.

Executive Director, Sales & Service Practice
Corporate Executive Board

Executive in Residence: February 11-12, 2013

Matt Dixon is Executive Director of the Sales & Service Practice of CEB (formerly called the Corporate Executive Board) in Arlington, VA.  In this capacity, he has management responsibility for the Sales Executive Council, Sales Leadership Roundtable and Customer Contact Council, which together serve more than 1,000 sales and customer service organizations globally. 

As Executive Director, Matt has overseen dozens of original quantitative and qualitative research studies of customer service and sales and has presented to hundreds of senior executives and management teams around the world, including those of many Fortune 500 companies, on issues ranging from customer service strategy to sales productivity. 

In addition to his many speaking engagements, Matt is a prolific business writer.  His most recent book is The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation (Penguin, November 2011), which has appeared on the Wall Street Journal business bestseller list and has been #1 on Amazon’s sales and selling bestseller list since its release.  He’s been published twice in Harvard Business Review with his article “The End of Solution Sales” in the summer 2012 issue and “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” in the summer 2010 issue.  He is also a frequent contributor on sales and customer service topics on a number of blogs, including that of the Harvard Business Review.  His next book on customer service will be published by Penguin and released in the fall of 2013.

Matt holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh as well as a B.A. in International Studies from Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated summa cum laude.  Matt currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife and four children.  In his spare time, he enjoys training for and competing in triathlons.

About the Corporate Executive Board:

CEB provides research, decision support tools, and executive education that focus on corporate strategy, operations, and general management issues. Its research services support executive decision making by identifying and analyzing specific management initiatives, processes, and strategies in solving business problems or challenges. The company’s services include research studies, executive education seminars, research briefs, and Web-based access to the program’s content database and decision support tools. It offers research programs in various areas, such as human resources, strategy and research and development, information technology, sales and marketing, corporate finance, legal and compliance, operations and procurement, financial services, communications, and general management. The company serves corporations worldwide. CEB was founded in 1979 and is publicly traded on the NYSE exchange (CEB).

Publications, Blog Posts and Interviews

• “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” Harvard Business Review, July-August 2010, with Nicholas Toman and Karen Freeman.  http://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers/ar/1

• “How Call Centers Use Behavioral Economics to Sway Customers,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog, July 13, 2010, with Nicholas Toman. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/07/how_call_centers_use_behaviora.html

•  “Why Delighting Your Customers is Overrated,” Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast, July 26, 2010.  http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2010/07/why-delighting-your-customers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)

• “Why Your Customers Don’t Want to Talk to You,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog, July 28, 2010, with Lara Ponomareff. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/07/why_your_customers_dont_want_t.html

•  “Call Center Confidential: The Underbelly of Customer Centricity,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog, September 10, 2010, with Lauren Pragoff.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/09/call_center_confidential_the_u.html

• “The Dirty Secret of Effective Sales Coaching,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog, January 31, 2011, with Brent Adamson.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/01/the_dirty_secret_of_effective.html

• “Are Your Sales Reps Spending Too Much Time in Front of Customers?,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog,” February 8, 2011, with Simon Frewer and Andrew Kent.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/are_your_sales_reps_spending_t.html#

• “When Money Doesn’t Speak Louder than Words,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog,” February 15, 2011, with Brent Adamson.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/why_money_doesnt_speak_louder.html

• “Selling is Not about Relationships,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog,” September 30, 2011, with Brent Adamson.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/09/selling_is_not_about_relatio.html

• “The Worst Question a Salesperson Can Ask,”  The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog,” October 7, 2011, with Brent Adamson.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/the_single_worst_question_a_sa.html  

• “Why Your Salespeople are Pushovers,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog,” October 14, 2011, with Brent Adamson.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/why_your_salespeople_are_pusho.html

• “How the Rift Between Sales and Marketing Undermines Reps,” The Conversation: The Harvard Business Review Blog, November 7, 2011, with Brent Adamson.  http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/how_the_rift_between_sales_and.html

• The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation, with Brent Adamson, November 2011(Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group USA).  www.thechallengersale.com