After Jim, Dwight and Michael lose a client to a rival salesman from an even smaller company, Danny Cordray, they organize a fake sale to observe him and figure out his technique. Andy forms a band with Darryl and Kevin.
Tropes:
- Always Someone Better: Danny takes a client from Dunder-Mifflin, even when Michael, Dwight, and Jim are working together. While Michael is initially upset, by the end of the episode he decides to accept Danny's superior skills and convinces him to become a traveling salesman for Dunder-Mifflin.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Asking Meredith to be the fake client simply because she was available. She forgoes the entire plan and tries to seduce Danny.
- Asking Oscar to switch places with Meredith, even though they don't have a cover story for Oscar ready, and Oscar had previously been shown as the type to crack under pressure when Michael brought him in front of the executives of Dunder-Mifflin. Meredith easily brushes his aside as a cleaning man.
- Asking Ryan to step in after Meredith and Oscar both failed. Between getting arrested for fraud, never making a sale, and easily cowing to Jim after a single demonstration of authority, his false bravado should have been obvious. Like Oscar, he is immediately brushed aside.
- Hiring Danny as a traveling salesman. While this seems like a good move on the surface, Michael eventually remembers that he jumped the gun by hiring for a position that is already filled by Todd Packer.
- Dumbass Has a Point: How Michael convinces Danny to join them. While Danny initially wants to run away from the creepiness of the Michael's sting operation, Michael rightly points out that Danny could be making much more money by joining a larger company like Dunder-Mifflin.
- El Spanish "-o": During the fake sale, Meredith uses this with Oscar and Ryan to make them look like cleaning men.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Donwplayed example. While Jim initally acts playful and jokes about the fact that Pam once dated Danny, he does seemed annoyed at the repeated comments about how handsome Danny is.
- The Ace: This episode introduces Danny as such an excellent salesman that even with Jim and Dwight working together, they still feel the need to call in Michael to help keep their client. Even with Michael's history as a Dunder-Mifflin's best salesman, he still loses out to Danny.
- Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Andy plays the song he, Darryl and Kevin recorded, and nobody seems to like it. But it's Creed telling him he did like it that really bums him out.
