Since we're speaking hypothetically here and I don't have AdventureWorks to play with, I'll propose another hypothetical approach that I've seen to work well on occasion.
Using Gail's Query 1, instead of the INNER JOIN try using a CROSS APPLY on a SELECT TOP 1 salesamount with ORDER BY salesamount DESC.
I would throw together an example but I don't like posting code I haven't tested.
For an example where I did something similar: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost1470314.aspx
There are even performance results later in the thread.
Edit: Note that this method will not return both rows if there's a tie for winner.
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?
My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.
Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St