Inflation and opportunity: What the new CPI numbers mean to our business

The new Consumer Price Index numbers are out for June.

What does that mean and who cares?

The CPI is an index that is often used to measure inflation by tracking the changes over time in the prices paid by consumers for a basket of goods and services.

What does that mean?

It means:

• Pork is up 13%.
• Milk up 15.9%.
• Oranges up 14.6%.
• Coffee up 15.3%.
• Butter up 15.9%.

We should have seen a glimpse of what CPI means in our day-to-day life over the July 4 holiday:

• Hamburger buns were up 16%.
• Chicken breast up 33%.
• Ground beef up 36%.
• Ice Cream up 10%.

Ok, I’m starting to get it, so what was the CPI that was just announced?

It was 9.1%, the biggest annual increase in almost 41 years.

This sets the expectations for another jumbo rate rise by the Federal Reserve later this month.

The central bank lifted its key rate by 0.75 percentage points last month in an intensifying effort to stamp out inflation fueled by rising energy costs and supply-chain snags triggered by the pandemic.

The Labor Department's consumer price index also registered its biggest monthly change — 1.3% — since 2005.

The good news

Good news?

What’s the matter with you Lloyd, how is this good news?

OK, calm down. Let’s take off our consumer hat and put on our marketing hat.

The one thing you can count on from the federal government is keeping dissonance in the marketplace.

If these numbers worry, concern or scare you (and they should), then everyone of your clients or prospects also is feeling the same thing.

And all the news agencies, who hire expert copywriters to write headlines specifically designed for you to click on have now become part of your marketing team. Just pick a headline, ask an interesting question, offer a compelling call to action, and start marketing to the problem people want to solve.

Impact Marketing did a survey last year and found that 70% of consumers make a buying decision to solve a problem and 30% make a buying decision to gain something.

I’m pretty sure we can guess what problems people want to solve.

If you do financial planning, estate planning or conduct annual reviews with your clients (which you should be doing), you now have great marketing messaging to run with and I’m guessing that with the right messaging people will answer their phone or reply to their email.

What to say when they do?

People buy on emotion and are moved to action by logic, so always sell the problem they have.

This is easier to say than do. You must be tough to make in this business so here are some hard-to-ask questions. For those who are tough enough to ask these questions and wait for the answer, you will have everything you need to do a needs analysis, an estate planning document or a financial analysis to protect your clients’ financial future.

Good luck, and here we go.

1. What does your spouse want to happen when you die?

• Tell me everything they want to happen the day you die?
• What do you think will happen?
• What do you want to happen?
• Where does your family want to live?
• Where do your kids want to go to go to school?
• Will your spouse want to go back to work?
• What do you want to happen to your business?
• Who do you want to own your business?

2. What does your spouse want to happen when you become disabled?

• Almost everyone in America becomes disabled for some period of time. What does your spouse want to happen if you could not work for one, two, or three years or forever?
• Does your spouse want to get a divorce?
• Do you want a physical catastrophe turning into an emotional catastrophe?
• Does your spouse want to lose your home?
• Do you realize more people lose their homes because of loss of income than casualty loss?

3. What does your spouse want to happen when you have a critical illness such a heart attack, stroke or cancer?

• Would they want to lose your house, or do they want to lose your mortgage?
• Does your family want to return to the duties that might have caused your critical illness to occur?
• Would they like you to consider other choices?

4. What does your family want to happen when you go into the nursing home?

• Does your spouse want the nursing home to get your money or the government to get your money; or do you want your family to get your money?
• The way you have things set up now, your family probably won’t get your money. Aren’t Americans living longer?
• Are Medicare and Medicaid paying less and less? Doesn’t Medicare kick patients out of hospitals faster and faster? Aren’t more Americans ending up in nursing homes because of this?
• What do you want to happen if this occurs in your family?

5. What does your spouse want to happen when you retire?

• Do they want to stay up north in the winter and freeze or do you want to go someplace warm in the winter?
• Do you want to work on the golf course or play on the golf course?
• Do they want to run out of money before you run out of month?
• Do you want to be an old man or an elderly gentleman?

Lloyd Lofton is the founder of Power Behind the Sales. He is the author of The Saleshero’s Guide To Handling Objections, voted 1 of the 11 Best New Presentation Books To Read in 2020 by BookAuthority. Lloyd may be contacted at [email protected].

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