Book Excerpt: The Outside Sales Villain

This isn’t your typical, feel-good sales book. This is war—and you're either closing deals or getting closed.

Victor Kane isn’t just a master manipulator; he’s a predator in a tailored suit, someone who enjoys the psychological destruction he leaves behind:

The office smelled of fear.

Victor Kane could always tell. It had a different scent than sweat—thicker, almost metallic. Desperation was the same in every language, and tonight, it was rolling off Jerry Finch in waves.

Victor smiled. Slow. Calculated. Like a snake tasting the air before the strike.

Across the desk, Finch gripped the pen like it was the last thing tethering him to reality. His eyes darted between the contract and the clock on the wall, like time itself could save him. Victor let him have his illusions. They made the fall even sweeter.

“I just… I need to think about it,” Finch stammered.

Victor exhaled slowly, shaking his head with the kind of deep, practiced disappointment that could make anyone crumble.

“Jerry,” he murmured, leaning in, voice low and steady. “Are you a man who makes decisions… or a man who lets opportunities slip through his fingers?”

Finch swallowed hard. That flicker of doubt—that moment of hesitation—was Victor’s playground.

“This isn’t just a deal,” Victor continued, his tone a study in impeccable control. “This is the difference between sitting at the table… and being on the menu.”

He let the words settle. Let Finch feel them.

Then, softly, he chuckled.

“And right now?” Victor’s voice dropped, just for effect. "Right now, you’re looking an awful lot like lunch."

Finch blinked. Confused. Frightened. That sweet, intoxicating blend.

Victor tapped the pen against the contract. A small sound, but somehow, it landed like a hammer in the silence. “Mr. Finch,” he murmured, flipping the contract toward the man. “We’re wasting time. And time, as you know, is a luxury you no longer have.”

“You already know what to do.”

The poor bastard swallowed hard, eyes darting to the clock on the wall like it might somehow slow down. Victor let him have his illusion. Let him think he still had a choice.

Then he leaned in. Close enough that Finch could smell the cologne, the money, the power—the scent of someone who never heard the word ‘no.’

Finch exhaled sharply, then—a broken nod. The moment Victor had been waiting for.

Victor watched, eyes sharp as a blade, as the man finally signed away whatever was left of himself.

Beautiful.

Victor plucked the contract from the desk, sliding it into his briefcase with all the care of a man collecting a trophy.

Then he stood, smoothing the lapels of his suit. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”

Finch just sat there, staring at the paper like it had stolen his soul.

Maybe it had.

Victor turned toward the door, but just before stepping out, he glanced back, his voice soft, just above a whisper

“I could have sold this to anyone, but I chose you. Do you know why?”

Finch shook his head, sweat beading at his temples.

“Because you were easy,” Victor said simply.

Jerry flinched. A pathetic, delicious reaction.

“Oh, and Jerry?” He tilted his head, watching his resistance fade like smoldering embers.

“You belong to me now.”

Then he was gone, leaving nothing behind but the scent of expensive cologne, the echo of his words, and a silence so heavy it felt like a noose.

 

Available now—before we convince you to pay more for it later.


     


Frank Hurtte has interviewed thousands of salespeople over the last 20 years. While not written as a typical sales book, this thriller takes ideas from the innermost, darker thoughts of salespeople worldwide. We've all had the customer push us near the edge of insanity for reality to kick in moments before acting out. Victor Kane knows no boundaries. Ethics are thrown out the window as he kicks down doors and bends his suspects, er, customers to his will.


 

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