Sales Mastery

The pressures of a career in sales are accurately portrayed in this interesting first novel. A middle-aged sales manager based in Silicon Valley, Gary Atkins is busted by rising managerial star Ted Bogden, because of his rising consumption of alcohol and falling sales figures. Relegated to rookie status, and later offered the options of detox, dismissal or resignation, a horrified Atkins agrees to enter a treatment program. He returns with generally the same attitude, to a new supervisor, Julie Plunkett, who demands that he shape up fast, meet a sales quota and follow a reporting system that is as refined as the testing equipment the company sells. Annoyed that his boss is a woman half his age, Atkins, also faced with the departure of his angry wife and an injury suffered during a karate workout, is forced to apply himself totally to Julie's regimen. Here, unfortunately, as Trailer turns his debut into a sales primer with a predictably upbeat ending and his hero into Horatio Alger, the novel loses credibility. Before this point, however, highly humorous passages and psychological insights animate the tale. (Mar.)