[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic]
Exactly. When he was interrupted, he was talking to the other person about his/her kids. Michael’s gift as a saleman is that when he engages a prospective customer about family or personal issues, he never sounds insincere or hustling or calculating. When he’s on his game, the sale almost sounds like an afterthought during a conversation with a buddy. His secret to sounding sincerely interested in the customer is that he IS sincerely interested. If he’d been allowed to ignore the script and pursue his own sales style, he’d have been closing right and left.
[/QUOTE]
This, I think, underscores what I expect will be the big climax of the season.
The story is obviously building to a point where Ryan will make some sort of definitive move against Michael (he may fire him, or more likely assign him to a “special project” that has him marginalized). Something will then go colossally wrong with Ryan’s approach to sales, a problem directly attributable to Ryan’s personality and one that is solved by Michael’s caring approach. My tentative guess: The website messes up a huge order, a very big customer is irate, Ryan does something to completely aggravate the situation (a he said/she said like “I’m sorry, but the computer says the order was filled.”/“Are you calling me a liar?”), and Michael rushes in to save the day.
There are pitfalls with this approach; as much as the now-smarmy Ryan makes an effective villain, there’s a danger of making him too unlikeable to have his character redeemable, an inportant quality in a comedy (see: Jan and Andy, unless B.J. Novak is planning to write himself out of the series). I think the team can pull it off, but I hope they can still make it somewhat surprising.
