MATT DIXON is Executive Director of the Financial Services and Customer Contact Practices of CEB in Arlington, VA.  In this capacity, he has management responsibility for the membership programs serving front office and back office financial services leaders and their teams, as well as the programs serving customer contact executives across industry.   A seasoned research leader, Matt has overseen dozens of original quantitative and qualitative research studies on topics ranging from customer service strategy to sales effectiveness and has presented findings to hundreds of senior executives and management teams around the world, including those of many Fortune 500 companies.

In addition to his management responsibilities, Matt is a noted business writer.  His first book, The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation(Penguin 2011), was a Wall Street Journal bestseller and won acclaim as “the most important advance in selling for many years” (SPIN Selling author Neil Rackham) and “the beginning of a wave that will take over a lot of selling organizations in the next decade.” (Business Insider).   He’s been published multiple times in the Harvard Business Review­­ with articles such as “Dismantling the Sales Machine,” “The End of Solution Sales” (July-August 2012) and “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” (July-August 2010) and he is a frequent contributor on sales and customer service topics on a number of blogs, including that of the Harvard Business Review.  His most recent book is on customer service, The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty (Penguin 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.