New Releases by Matthew Dixon

The groundbreaking approach used by today''s best professional service partners to win, retain, and grow client relationships. There is a growing problem in the professional services industry that is often acknowledged but rarely discussed openly: clients--even long-standing ones for whom firms have delivered unquestioned value in the past--are much less loyal to firms and partners than they once were. This dramatic shift in client behavior has rendered traditional approaches to business development not only ineffective but counterproductive. But top performers have figured out a radical new approach that is redefining what it means to be a "rainmaker" in today''s professional services market. Drawing on a comprehensive, quantitative study of nearly 3,000 partners--spanning law, accounting, consulting, investment banking, executive search, and public relations--The Activator Advantage identifies the five types of partners found across the professional services landscape and shows how only one of them--the Activator--drives consistent growth. Activators deeply embed business development habits into their daily workflow, aggressively leverage their internal and external networks and proactively deliver both business and personal value to clients--all of which not only helps shield them from the vagaries of modern client buying behavior but also lays the groundwork for stickier, longer-lasting relationships. Packed with eye-opening data, counterintuitive insights, and robust case examples--as well as the trademark storytelling abilities of the researchers who produced such business blockbusters as The Challenger Sale, The Effortless Experience, and The JOLT Effect--The Activator Advantage provides the road map for any professional services partner or firm leader looking to chart a path to greater client engagement, internal collaboration, revenue growth, and firm profitability in the new era of client disloyalty.

From the bestselling co-author of The Challenger Sale, a paradigm-shattering approach to overcoming customer indecision and closing more sales In sales, the worst thing you can hear from a customer isn’t “no.” It’s “I need to think about it.” When this happens, deeply entrenched business advice says to double down on your efforts to sell a buyer on all the ways they might win by choosing you and your business. But this approach backfires dramatically. Why? Because it completely gets wrong the primary driver behind purchasing decision-making: once purchase intent is established, customers no longer care about succeeding. What they really care about is not failing. For years, sales expert Matthew Dixon has been busting longstanding business myths. Now in The JOLT Effect, he and co-author Ted McKenna turn their trademark analysis and latest research to the vital and growing problem of customer indecision—and offer a shocking new approach that turns conventional wisdom on its head. Drawing on a brand-new, first-of-its-kind study of more than two and a half million sales conversations from across industry, they reveal the surprising truth that high-performing sales reps grasp and their average-performing peers don’t: only by addressing the customer’s fear of failure can you get indecisive buyers to go from verbally committing to actually pulling the trigger. Packed with robust data, counterintuitive insights, and practical guidance, The JOLT Effect is the playbook for any salesperson or sales leader who wants to close the gap between customer intent and action—and close more sales.

The stories of 80 men from a small school in Oxfordshire who fell in the Great War, and of the impact of the war on the school.

Skylar Speer has the perfect plan, to get away with the perfect murder. With the help of her best friend, she brings this plan to life but the consequences of her decision are catastrophic.

Four years ago, the bestselling authors of The Challenger Sale overturned decades of conventional wisdom with a bold new approach to sales. Now their latest research reveals something even more surprising: Being a Challenger seller isn’t enough. Your success or failure also depends on who you challenge. Picture your ideal customer: friendly, eager to meet, ready to coach you through the sale and champion your products and services across the organization. It turns out that’s the last person you need. Most marketing and sales teams go after low-hanging fruit: buyers who are eager and have clearly articulated needs. That’s simply human nature; it’s much easier to build a relationship with someone who always makes time for you, engages with your content, and listens attentively. But according to brand-new CEB research—based on data from thousands of B2B marketers, sellers, and buyers around the world—the highest-performing teams focus their time on potential customers who are far more skeptical, far less interested in meeting, and ultimately agnostic as to who wins the deal. How could this be? The authors of The Challenger Customer reveal that high-performing B2B teams grasp something that their average-performing peers don’t: Now that big, complex deals increasingly require consensus among a wide range of players across the organization, the limiting factor is rarely the salesperson’s inability to get an individual stakeholder to agree to a solution. More often it’s that the stakeholders inside the company can’t even agree with one another about what the problem is. It turns out only a very specific type of customer stakeholder has the credibility, persuasive skill, and will to effectively challenge his or her colleagues to pursue anything more ambitious than the status quo. These customers get deals to the finish line far more often than friendlier stakeholders who seem so receptive at first. In other words, Challenger sellers do best when they target Challenger customers. The Challenger Customer unveils research-based tools that will help you distinguish the "Talkers" from the "Mobilizers" in any organization. It also provides a blueprint for finding them, engaging them with disruptive insight, and equipping them to effectively challenge their own organization.

Everyone knows that the best way to create customer loyalty is with service so good, so over the top, that it surprises and delights. But what if everyone is wrong? In their acclaimed bestseller The Challenger Sale, Matthew Dixon and his colleagues at CEB busted many longstanding myths about sales. Now they’ve turned their research and analysis to a new vital business subject—customer loyalty—with a new book that turns the conventional wisdom on its head. The idea that companies must delight customers by exceeding service expectations is so entrenched that managers rarely even question it. They devote untold time, energy, and resources to trying to dazzle people and inspire their undying loyalty. Yet CEB’s careful research over five years and tens of thousands of respondents proves that the “dazzle factor” is wildly overrated—it simply doesn’t predict repeat sales, share of wallet, or positive wordof-mouth. The reality: Loyalty is driven by how well a company delivers on its basic promises and solves day-to-day problems, not on how spectacular its service experience might be. Most customers don’t want to be “wowed”; they want an effortless experience. And they are far more likely to punish you for bad service than to reward you for good service. If you put on your customer hat rather than your manager or marketer hat, this makes a lot of sense. What do you really want from your cable company, a free month of HBO when it screws up or a fast, painless restoration of your connection? What about your bank—do you want free cookies and a cheerful smile, even a personal relationship with your teller? Or just a quick in-and-out transaction and an easy way to get a refund when it accidentally overcharges on fees? The Effortless Experience takes readers on a fascinating journey deep inside the customer experience to reveal what really makes customers loyal—and disloyal. The authors lay out the four key pillars of a low-effort customer experience, along the way delivering robust data, shocking insights and profiles of companies that are already using the principles revealed by CEB’s research, with great results. And they include many tools and templates you can start applying right away to improve service, reduce costs, decrease customer churn, and ultimately generate the elusive loyalty that the “dazzle factor” fails to deliver. The rewards are there for the taking, and the pathway to achieving them is now clearly marked.

Qual será o segredo do sucesso em vendas? Se você for como a maioria dos líderes empresariais, dirá que é uma questão de relacionamento - e estará errado. Os melhores vendedores não se limitam a construir relacionamentos com seus clientes: eles os desafiam. A necessidade de compreender o que os melhores vendedores fazem - e o que os distingue de seus colegas de resultados apenas medianos - levou Matthew Dixon e Brent Adamson a investigar as competências, atitudes e conhecimentos mais importantes para um desempenho excepcional em vendas. Suas conclusões talvez representem o maior abalo sofrido em décadas pela sabedoria convencional da área. Partindo de um estudo exaustivo de milhares de representantes comerciais, oriundos das mais variadas indústrias e cenários, A venda desafiadora defende que a abordagem clássica de construção de relacionamentos está fadada ao fracasso. O estudo dos autores constatou que todos os representantes de vendas do mundo correspondem a um de cinco perfis distintos, e embora os profissionais de todos esses tipos possam alcançar um desempenho mediano, apenas um deles - o Desafiador - apresenta, com consistência, resultados elevados. Em vez de aborrecer seus clientes desfiando um rosário interminável de fatos e características de sua empresa e seus produtos, os Desafiadores oferecem ideias específicas para que seu interlocutor economize ou ganhe dinheiro. Sua mensagem de vendas é personalizada conforme as necessidades e objetivos específicos de cada caso. Em vez de aquiescer a cada demanda ou objeção do cliente, eles adotam uma atitude assertiva, discordando quando necessário e assumindo o controle da venda. Os traços que fazem dos Desafiadores figuras sem igual podem ser replicados e ensinados aos representantes comerciais comuns. Tendo compreendido como identificar os Desafiadores em sua organização, você poderá usá-los como exemplo para implantar uma nova postura em toda sua força de vendas.

On the island of Santorini, a team of archaeologists uncover a find that could change the world''s understanding of history. Across the globe in Australia, two detectives struggle to solve a mysterious murder only to find that it is part of a far darker conspiracy. The sunshine of the Gold Coast is darkened by a fierce storm as a group of teenagers fight to survive an attack by strange mythical creatures. In France, a Napoleonic historian uncovers clues to a mystery over three thousand years old. As they each seek the truth they are all drawn together to fight a common enemy. After three thousand years, the race of Rataal has returned to earth to reclaim their king.

Este es un libro de ventas diferente. No se trata de resumir sólo un método de venta o mostrar las experiencias de un vendedor exitoso, sino que es el resultado de una profunda investigación acerca de los vendedores y sus características. Las conclusiones de esa extensa investigación han sido sorprendentes y en algunos casos contradictorias con la sabiduría convencional. El mejor vendedor no es quien mejor relaciones públicas hace, sino aquél que logra un desafío con el comprador, que conoce el negocio como nadie y que es capaz de controlar el diálogo del proceso de venta. Sepa cuáles son las características de sus vendedores y cómo convertirlos en vendedores desafiantes

What''s the secret to sales success? If you''re like most business leaders, you''d say it''s fundamentally about relationships-and you''d be wrong. The best salespeople don''t just build relationships with customers. They challenge them. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale business-to-business solutions. The authors'' study found that every sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, and while all of these types of reps can deliver average sales performance, only one-the Challenger- delivers consistently high performance. Instead of bludgeoning customers with endless facts and features about their company and products, Challengers approach customers with unique insights about how they can save or make money. They tailor their sales message to the customer''s specific needs and objectives. Rather than acquiescing to the customer''s every demand or objection, they are assertive, pushing back when necessary and taking control of the sale. The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable to the average sales rep. Once you understand how to identify the Challengers in your organization, you can model their approach and embed it throughout your sales force. The authors explain how almost any average-performing rep, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers'' expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty and, ultimately, greater growth.