And what they discovered may be the biggest shock to conventional sales wisdom in decades. The need to understand what top-performing reps are doing that their average performing colleagues are not drove Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson, and their colleagues at Corporate Executive Board to investigate the skills, behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes that matter most for high performance. The best salespeople don't just build relationships with customers. What's the secret to sales success? If you're like most business leaders, you'd say it's fundamentally about relationships-and you'd be wrong.