20-05-2025
5 Paths To B2B Success From Matt Dixon's 'The Activator Advantage'
Sales is an interesting space - part skill, part art, part science. I've always been fascinated by what truly separates the stars from everyone else. Matt Dixon, bestselling author of The Challenger Sale, tackles this question in his latest book, The Activator Advantage: What Today's Rainmakers Do Differently, drawing from an extensive research initiative called 'The Rainmaker Genome Project.'
When Matt and I recently spoke, he explained that this research stemmed from recognizing that conventional B2B sales approaches weren't quite clicking with professionals who sell their expertise. The study included nearly three thousand partner-level professionals. It featured in-depth behavioral interviews with top performers and identified five distinct profiles. One of these, the "Activator" profile, stood out as dramatically more likely to achieve top performance.
While this research project focused on professional services, the core behaviors and mindsets of Activators offer valuable, practical lessons for sales and marketing professionals across numerous industries. Here are five essential takeaways:
Activators don't wait for clients to identify a need before responding. Instead, they constantly scan for potential threats, opportunities, regulatory shifts, or market trends their clients might miss. They take the initiative to reach out and discuss these emerging issues and their implications.
This isn't about blasting generic thought leadership—it's about offering information targeted specifically for a client's role, company, or industry. In my conversation with Matt, one of the most surprising findings from their client data was a common refrain: "I wish I heard from my partners more often."
Clients, typically buried in their day-to-day responsibilities, truly value professionals who help them "look around corners" and offer fresh perspectives. This proactive, insight-driven engagement helps shape the client's understanding of potential needs and positions the Activator as a valuable, forward-thinking partner. Ideally, this happens before a formal need or RFP materializes.
Most professionals recognize the importance of delivering business results and building trust. However, Activators dig deeper by understanding and supporting a client's individual aspirations, challenges, and even personal interests. This level of personal support is what Matt describes as the "stickiest" value driver. It differentiates the relationship and transforms the professional from a trusted advisor into a genuine ally.
Examples include helping develop a client's team members or offering career guidance, all without expecting immediate financial return. This demonstrates cognitive empathy and a profound understanding of the surrounding the client's full context, including their personal value drivers. The result is a stronger, more enduring connection than business impact or trust alone could create.
For Activators, a professional network is more than a collection of contacts. Rather, it's a strategic resource requiring intentional investment and management. They're deliberate about building connections, viewing their network as the source of future opportunities. This involves targeted outreach, purposeful networking at events (planning interactions beforehand), and strategic use of platforms like LinkedIn.
Activators engage online to create pathways to targeted conversations, often moving discussions offline, rather than simply broadcasting content. They leverage LinkedIn for meaningful exchanges by commenting thoughtfully on others' posts. They find ways to connect over shared interests or industry developments. This strategic approach ensures their networking efforts translate into real momentum for business development.
Business development inevitably involves dealing with rejection, missed opportunities, and difficult conversations. Activators possess remarkable resiliency, viewing setbacks as temporary, external, and non-personal. This mindset is rooted in understanding that a single interaction rarely indicates a systemic problem. It allows Activators to persist and maintain a positive outlook.
Instead of spiraling into helplessness, they transform setbacks into opportunities to learn, problem-solve, and even strengthen relationships by candidly addressing what happened. They understand that not every client is an ideal fit. They quickly pivot toward finding the next opportunity rather than dwelling on past disappointments.
Activators focus on expanding the overall value in client relationships and negotiations, not just claiming a bigger piece for themselves. This includes proactively bringing in colleagues with complementary expertise to provide comprehensive solutions, ensuring clients benefit from the full breadth of the firm's capabilities.
In negotiations, Activators leverage their deep understanding of the client's business and personal drivers to find creative solutions that enhance value for both parties. This collaborative approach, centered on creating integrative value rather than purely distributive wins, helps preserve and strengthen the long-term relationship.
This mindset extends to internal collaborations as well, even with traditionally difficult colleagues. Activators know that being helpful and generous internally can unlock significant joint opportunities.
By adopting these five strategies—proactively delivering insights, focusing on personal client goals, strategically managing networks, cultivating resilience, and prioritizing integrative value—sales and marketing professionals in any B2B sector can emulate the behaviors of top-performing Activators and drive more consistent business development success.
