Salestober: Top 10 Movie Villains We'd Reluctantly Consider Placing
At SalesFirst, we’ve been pretty clear that we value investing in people… Even the ones with a questionable past, or a scorched-earth strategy. Because when you look past their villainy, some of cinema’s most notorious bad guys have displayed fantastic leadership.
This Salestober, we’re breaking down 10 movie villains we’d consider placing with our valued clients. Because after all, the best closers rarely ask for permission.
CRO Candidates
Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War)
Superpower: Long-term vision. Executes flawlessly, no matter the cost.
Red Flag: Tends to wipe out half of your client base.
Why We'd Hire: If you need alignment across the GTM org, Thanos brings the strategy. He thinks big, commits fully, and never misses quota. We’d recommend an ethics review of all strategic plans, however.
Saruman (The Lord of the Rings)
Superpower: Vision casting, command of resources, and insane recruitment skills.
Red Flag: Struggles to manage up / Avoids providing upward feedback when it’s needed.
Why We'd Hire: Saruman builds infrastructure. He leads armies, scales operations, and persuades even the stubborn to follow. With better safeguards, he'd thrive in competitive strategy. Highly recommend weekly one-on-ones with the CEO to ensure upward transparency.
Darth Vader (Star Wars)
Superpower: Total command of the room. Authority? Off the charts.
Red Flag: Zero patience. He occasionally chokes out an SDR during a pipeline review.
Why We'd Hire: Vader gets results. He closes deals and he gets involved himself. With structure and a decent HR partner, he could scale a team galaxy-wide.
VP of Sales Candidates
Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada)
Superpower: Precision. She sees every detail, every gap, and every excuse coming from a mile away.
Red Flag: Culture killer. Morale will drop, but margin will rise.
Why We'd Hire: She sets standards high and keeps people sharp. With the right enablement support, she'd drive excellence across top accounts. No fluff, just follow-through. Regular culture pulse checks and a team feedback loop would work wonders for her.
Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
Superpower: Charisma under pressure. Master Planner.
Red Flag: Can’t stand being out-negotiated. Struggles when he’s not the smartest person in the room.
Why We'd Hire: Hans understands leverage, positioning, and stakeholder psychology. Just Keep him stocked with blanks, not real leverage. And debrief every negotiation with Legal present.
Sales Managers
Gordon Gekko (Wall Street)
Superpower: Greed-fueled motivation. Knows how to light a fire under a floor.
Red Flag: Once dismantled a family business just to prove a point.
Why We'd Hire: Gekko would run a brutally effective bootcamp. He teaches reps to push value, challenge objections, and play to win. Just be sure to lock him out of the cap table, route all mentoring through compliance, and never let him near a founder's succession plan.
Bane (The Dark Knight Rises)
Superpower: Discipline and structure. Builds loyalty through brutal consistency.
Red Flag: Inspires fear more than motivation. Highly destructive.
Why We'd Hire: Bane leads with systems. He rallies teams around a shared mission, drives urgency, and doesn’t tolerate excuses. Give him a forecast and he’ll deliver. Be sure to issue ergonomic back braces to the entire team.
Regina George (Mean Girls)
Superpower: Psychological manipulation. High school or the office, she dominates the room.
Red Flag: Drama is inevitable.
Why We'd Hire: She builds loyalty fast and drives peer influence. With the right boundaries, Regina could turn fresh grads into quota-crushers. And ask the ops team to monitor Slack for keyword alerts.
Individual Contributor Candidates
Loki (Thor / The Avengers)
Superpower: Shape-shifting pitch deck delivery.
Red Flag: Deals never close the way you expect. Also, not big on "team alignment."
Why We'd Hire: Loki is the wild card. A closer’s closer with elite improvisation skills. You just have to conduct daily deal reviews and hire a strong Sales Engineer to fact-check client calls.
Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Superpower: Tonality. Urgency. Objection-handling god.
Red Flag: Literally all of it.
Why We'd Hire: We wouldn’t hire Jordan, but we’d pay him for one workshop. His ability to teach voice control and tempo makes him worth the risk. We recommend a zero reimbursement policy
Every great closer has a little villain in them. The trick is pointing them in the right direction.
#Salestober #sellhappy #salesleaders #popculture #investinpeople
