Sneakers and Sales, Average Cost of a Tax Firm, Tech in Schools
Thursday Three: Episode 10
read time 2 minutes
Here are three interesting ideas you won’t find doom scrolling.
TL;DR
How people buy sneakers (and how it’ll make you better at sales)
How much you can expect to pay a tax firm
The ever-changing role of tech in education
How people buy sneakers (and how it’ll make you better at sales)
Jason Fried gave a speech at BIG Omaha back in 2010 where he told a story about his experience selling running shoes. He thought the whole process was pretty ironic…
All these shoe brands would come into the store he was working at and talk to the salespeople about all the fancy new shoe technology. The brands thought that the more the salespeople knew about the shoes, the more shoes they would sell.
Wrong.
Here’s how people buy shoes:
They try them on and bounce around on their toes a bit — are they comfortable?
Then they check them out in the mirror a bit — do they look good?
Then they check the price — can I afford these?
Nobody cares about the tech. They just care whether the shoes are comfortable, fashionable, and affordable.
So what’s the lesson here?
Sales isn’t about all the fancy, shiny, new technology. Most customers don’t care about that. What they do care about is how the product makes them feel, how it’s going to make them perceived by others, and what the price is.
How much you can expect to pay a tax firm
This year, I spent several months trying to find a tax accountant. I’ve always just used TurboTax, but since I bought a house recently, earned a little more commission than I expected, and earned a fair amount freelancing, I figured it was time to start working with an actual accountant.
However…I had no idea what a good tax accountant costs. Turns out, I could’ve crowdsourced some answers from r/fatFire.
The recommendations ranged from $500 - $10,000, but an overwhelming amount of the responses fell in the $1,000 - $2,000 range. Here’s the thread if you’re interested.
The ever-changing role of tech in education
Interesting to think about. One thing I’ll add to this is that now the “rich kids” are often being homeschooled as well.
This tweet sparked my interest because it made me think about the role of technology in the education system. It’s changed a lot in the past 20 years.
Heck, when I was growing up, we had a class called “Computers”. Fast forward to today, and computers are embedded into literally every aspect of education.
Is that a good thing though?