Neil Rackham, one of the foremost authorities on sales and author of numerous bestsellers, including "SPIN Selling," writes the following about Tom Payne's new book, "The Causes of Sales Success": "This eminently practical and useful book has something for everyone in sales, from new entry to the most experienced key account executive. Its mix of ideas, examples, cases and quotes from history and literature make it fun to read.""The Causes of Sales Success" poses the question, "What causes the sale to close?" Is it features and benefits? Do consultative solutions, relationships, asking the right questions, or all of the above and then some? The answer is important because until we know what causes a customer's buying decision, then how can we cause one? Without this knowledge we end up trying this and that and sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. Until we know what causes the buying decision, and apply it systematically, we are wandering lost in the maze of sales. This book reveals the causes, confirms that they are real, and then describes a field-tested, classroom-taught system based on what causes sales to close. The results of this system were remarkable. They enabled a relatively unknown, small Midwestern company to vault ahead of well known, multi-billion dollar competitors to become the market leader in the sales and installation of specialized, hospital communication systems that cost up to $4 million installed.The first hand sales successes of the author, who has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience, will sometimes seem improbable.

He has walked into hostile environments, where his sales manager was denied access to the account, and presented to an audience that was forced to listen to his presentation. One hour later the sale was closed and it was entirely due to understanding what causes the buying decision and focusing exclusively on these causes.The book offers what first appeared as workshops on how to develop questions that are custom tailored to each person in the decision making team and why this makes a difference. A workshop based on developing memorable and entertaining stories is the basis of another chapter.One of the most important workshops that became a chapter in this book is on interviewing. It shows how these insights into the causes of the buying decision also apply to the hiring decision. And just like the corporate arena, these techniques produce astonishing results.It is so basic: every effect has a cause.

Once we discover and apply the causes of the buying decision this basic insight becomes transformational. It leads to the modification of most of the current sales approaches, and it introduces new ones.