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Authors
Matthew Dixon
Matthew Dixon is an executive director with CEB’s sales and marketing practice. In this capacity, he has management responsibility for CEB Sales Leadership Council and CEB Customer Contact Council, which together serve more than 1,000 sales and customer service organizations globally.
During his time at CEB, 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 The Challenger Sale, his work has been published in the Harvard Business Review (“Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” July-August 2010 and “The End of Solution Sales”, July-August 2012). He is also a frequent contributor on sales and customer service topics in a variety of publications, including the Harvard Business Review’s blog.
Matt holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh where he did research on multinational sourcing and technology transfer in the aerospace industry. As part of his research, Matt conducted field research in Japan, China and South Korea. Matt completed his undergraduate work at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where he graduated summa cum laude. He currently resides outside Washington, DC in Silver Spring, Maryland with his wife and four children. In his spare time, he enjoys training for and competing in triathlons.
Brent Adamson
Brent Adamson is a managing director of Executive Advisory Services for CEB Sales Leadership Council. In that role, he serves as the Council’s chief story teller, having worked on numerous sales and marketing studies broadly spanning everything from customer loyalty to sales rep performance to organizational productivity.
With more than 20 years of experience as a professional researcher, teacher, trainer, and facilitator, Brent learned long ago that even the world’s best research only drives action when wrapped in a compelling story. Well known for both his passion and excitement for great ideas, Brent is a sought after speaker and facilitator. In his 10 years at CEB he has worked with tens of thousands of sales leaders all over the world in meetings, seminars, workshops, and retreats, to redefine what good looks like when it comes to commercial excellence. He has been privileged to work with some of the greatest thought leaders in B2B sales and marketing to further the professionalization of sales as a function.
Brent joined CEB from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, where he received his MBA with distinction. Prior to that, he served on the faculty of Michigan State University as a Professor of German and Applied Linguistics. In addition to his MBA, Brent holds a BA with distinction in political science from the University of Michigan along with MAs in political science and German, and a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Texas. Brent resides in Leesburg, Virginia with his wife and two daughters.
Principal Contributors
Karen Freeman
Karen led the research team during the Challenger Sale work, helping the team interpret the quantitative results and connect them to best practices. She has taken her leadership and research skills and has applied it to support heads of marketing and contact centers.
Todd Burner
Todd Burner served as the project manager on the Challenger Sale work, leading a team of analysts as they conducted quantitative and qualitative research into the profile of the high performing sales rep. His efforts helped surface the best practice examples of how companies can effectively build Challengers in their organizations.
Timur Hicyilmaz
Timur Hicyilmaz spends most of his time figuring out analytically what works and what doesn’t – which included his quantitative analysis leading to the Challenger Sale work. He has spent the last 10 years building studies for CEB’s sales and marketing practice.
