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Coaching for Leaders

736: How High Performers Land New Business, with Matt Dixon

Coaching for Leaders

Dave Stachowiak

Education, Business, Management, Self-improvement, Careers

4.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt Dixon: The Activator Advantage
Matt Dixon is Founding Partner of DCM Insights, a global training and advisory firm, and a leading expert in business development and client experience. His first book The Challenger Sale was a #1 Amazon and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and translated in a dozen languages. His newest book with colleagues Rory Channer, Karen Freeman, and Ted McKenna is The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently*.

At lot of us know the traits of the kind of person who’s successful at attracting new business. What many of us don’t know, is that what’s working today is actually different than what we traditionally think. In this conversation, Matt and I a take a detailed look at the professionals who are landing the most new business – and what they’re doing that works.
Key Points

The loyalty that once existed between professionals and their clients has changed substantially in recent years.
A type of professional called an activator represents the highest performance in business development.
Activators assume their best clients will leave at some point and are consistently working to build a pipeline of opportunities.
Many professionals tend to protect client relationships. In contrast, activators actively bring colleagues into these relationships.
Activators don’t wait for inquiries. They meet opportunities happen by building relationships before paid work begins.
Activators go way past birthdays and factual knowledge about others. They discover what’s important to their clients as individuals.
Activators go way past “as is” content and work hard to thoughtfully connect it to a prospect or client’s situation.

Resources Mentioned

The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently* by Matt Dixon, Rory Channer, Karen Freeman, and Ted McKenna

Interview Notes
Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required).
Related Episodes

The Surprising Truth About Influencing Others, with Daniel Pink (episode 84)
How to Become the Person You Want to Be, with James Clear (episode 376)
The Way to Earn Attention, with Raja Rajamannar (episode 521)

Expert Partner
Finding it hard to make an impression in a noisy marketplace? Many listeners have reached out to David Hutchens to help their organizations get traction through the power of story. If you’re planning an offsite or training to get better, get in touch with us to start the conversation with David or any of our other expert partners.
Discover More
Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

Transcript

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0:00.0

A lot of us know the traits of the kind of person who's successful at attracting new business.

0:06.4

Or do we?

0:07.5

What many of us don't know is that what's working today is actually different than what we traditionally think.

0:13.7

In this episode, a detailed look at the professionals who are landing the most new business

0:19.0

and what they're doing that works.

0:21.9

This is Coaching for Leaders, Episode 736.

0:26.5

Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

0:34.9

Greetings to you from Orange County, California. This is Coaching for Leaders, and I'm your host, Dave Stahoviac.

0:42.9

Leaders aren't born. They're made. And this weekly show helps you discover leadership wisdom through insightful conversations.

0:51.2

Every leader has a responsibility, at least in some way, of helping their organization perform.

0:57.5

Maybe it is landing new business. Maybe it is finding a new donor. Maybe that's part of the role, a big part of the role, or maybe it's an adjunct to it.

1:06.6

Regardless, understanding how high performers land new business is an essential concept for so many of us.

1:15.5

Today, I'm so glad to be able to dive into that in detail with Matt Dixon, an expert who's done so much thinking on this.

1:23.2

Matt is a founding partner of DCM Insights, a global training and advisory firm, and a leading

1:29.1

expert in business development and client experience.

1:32.3

His first book, The Challenger Sale, was a number one Amazon and Wall Street Journal,

1:36.3

bestseller, and translated into a dozen languages.

1:40.0

His newest book with colleagues Roy Channer, Karen Freeman, and Ted McKenna is the Activator

1:44.8

Advantage.

1:45.5

What today's Rainmakers do differently.

1:48.3

Matt, such a pleasure to have you.

1:50.5

Hey, Dave.

...

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