Matthew Dixon, co-founder of DCM Insights, is a researcher who’s spent the bulk of his career looking into the shared characteristics and behaviors of successful B2B salespeople. In 2011, he released a study called “The Challenger Sale.” when giving a keynote on his findings at an annual partner retreat, when an audience member stood up and challenged him.

“He said, ‘Dr. Dixon, you’ve been talking now for 45 minutes about sales effectiveness and salespeople and selling and sales process, and it’s all very fascinating and I’m sure our clients would be very interested in this,’” Dixon recounts to the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles in this episode of The Modern Law Library. “‘And after all, we do a lot of consulting work around go-to-market strategy. But what maybe you don’t recognize is that we are partners at our firm. We are not salespeople. In fact, there’s not a single salesperson in this audience. I might go so far as to say we don’t sell anything here.’”

Dixon was taken aback. “What I realized was this world of partnerships, of professional services, of doer-sellers is actually quite a bit different from the world of sales and what we had written and all this research we’d done over the years.”

In 2022, he tackled this population with the Rainmaker Genome Project, a study that became the basis for The Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently, co-written by Dixon, Rory Channer, Karen Freeman and Ted McKenna.

The Rainmaker Genome Project surveyed 3,000 partner-level professionals in 41 firms from the fields of law, public relations, accounting and investment banking. About 39% of respondents were lawyers. Each received a score for their effectiveness in business development and were analyzed for how they provided client services. And it turns out that partner was correct: What makes a lawyer an effective rainmaker is not necessarily what makes a salesperson an effective seller.
After doing a vector analysis on the data, “what we found was that every one of those 3000 professionals could be placed into one of five business development profiles,” says Dixon. The five profiles were the expert, the confidant, the debater, the challenger and the activator.
Dixon stresses that the five categories are not about your personality. While personalities are immutable, behaviors can be changed.
“These are about the things that we can all learn to be better at,” says Dixon. “It’s about the way we spend our time, it’s about the way we engage our clients, it’s about how we use resources, about how we collaborate with our colleagues, and those are things we can all get better at with the right training, coaching and support from our firms.” In this episode, Dixon expands on each type, but the most effective performers in terms of business development were found to be the activators.


What today’s rainmakers do differently

Hsu Untied interview with Charlotte De Géry

“How Did I Get Here?” is a series on the MassBar Beat podcast exploring the path from new lawyer to partner through in-depth interviews with lawyers at law firms, solo practitioners, in-house counsel and government employees about their unique path to a partner-level position.

In this episode, host Michael D. Molloy, who is chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association Civil Litigation Section, talks with attorney Erich Bryant, a partner with Ahern, DeWitt & Bryant in Lowell, who also teaches at Boston University's Metropolitan College. Bryant discusses how he got to where he is today with his practice, which includes criminal law (as a bar advocate) and also some personal injury and construction litigation. In addition, he talks about the impact of having a mentor, and gives litigation and courtroom tips for newer lawyers.

How Did I Get Here? Ep. 12: Erich Bryant of Ahern, DeWitt & Bryant in Lowell

We sit down with retired Nebraska Court of Appeals Judge Hon. John Irwin, to discuss his career, the history of the Court of Appeals in Nebraska, and his work in starting the Sarpy County Bar Association. This interview was done in connection with the Omaha Bar Association's 150th Anniversary in 2025.

"Bar Talk" Ep. 70 - Hon. John Irwin (Ret.) - Nebraska Court of Appeals

Recorded in February 2024, this conversation is with then President of the Nebraska State Bar Association, Jason Grams. Jason is a past member of the board of the Omaha Bar Association.

"Bar Talk" Ep. 71 - Jason Grams - Immediate Past-President of the Nebraska State Bar Association

Hosted by Jordan Rich, this episode of the MassBar Beat podcast looks at Children and Family Law Appeals and how attorneys from the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the state public defender agency, help children and families in need when the state intervenes. Arlington attorney Laura Openshaw, a private attorney who is on CPCS' appellate panel for Children and Family Law Appeals, discusses her path to this critical area of law, what the work entails, and how other private attorneys can get involved by joining CPCS' upcoming Appellate Panel Certification Training in January 2026. 

Related links: 
https://www.publiccounsel.net/CAFL/Professional/Appellate-practice-tools-and-resources
https://www.publiccounsel.net/train/cafl/

CAFL Appeals: Helping Children and Families in Need

This presentation by Omaha attorney and author Larry Dwyer was recorded in front of a live audience at the Hruska Federal Courthouse in Omaha on August 25, 2025. The event was co-hosted by the Nebraska State Bar Association. Mr. Dwyer is the author of "Standing Bear's Quest for Freedom" and "Andrew J. Poppleton: Fighter for Omaha City, the Union Pacific Railroad, and Chief Standing Bear." This podcast is part of the 150th Anniversary celebration of the Omaha Bar Association in 2025.

"Bar Talk" Ep. 72 - Larry Dwyer - Chief Standing Bear Trial & OBA Founder Andrew Poppleton

Voluntary association of attorneys, judges, and law students in Omaha, Nebraska. Est. 1875. More information at www.omahabarassociation.com.

"Bar Talk" Ep. 72 - Larry Dwyer - Chief Standing Bear Trial & OBA Founder Andrew Poppleton

Omaha Bar Association "Bar Talk" Podcast

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