The legendary Mehdi Fakharzadeh has been a member of the Million Dollar Round Table since 1967 and has been involved with the New York Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, Passaic-Bergen Association, Association of Advanced Life Underwriting, and is a charter member of the International Forum Club. In 2000, he received the highest recognition in New Jersey with the Israel Siegel Award. A book about him titled, Nothing is Impossible, is in its fifth printing.

He spoke at the Million Dollar Round Table Meeting. And advisers listened to his overall philosophy and his finest examples.

“My philosophy when meeting with a client has always been twofold. First it is important to respect his or her time. You accomplish this by being direct, to the point and prepared. Second is to impact them in the brief amount of time you share. This can be done through an anecdote, personal story or a statement directed at the heart of the issue you have come to discuss.”

In attaining his sales success, Fakharzadeh has opened many doors by following one piece of advice: Keep It Simple.

Upon meeting, he asks clients to write down assets all that they own, real estate, investments, collectibles, their business, and the like. He asks them to also compile a list of debts.

“Subtract the debts from your assets and give me the result and I will tell you what you should do,” he tells clients.

“I am building a relationship with them by presenting a casual, but direct approach to gathering the data necessary to move forward.”

Once the prospect is convinced of the need, the issue of premium quotation is next. Fakharzadeh knows how to quote a premium without scaring the prospect.

“When the client asks for the premium I respond by using an analogy. ‘If you had $10,000 in a checking account at a bank near your home and you wanted to transfer it to a checking account in a bank near your office how much would it cost?'

“The answer is nothing. The same applies for the insurance policy. You are transferring money into savings. My position has always been, don’t quote.”

He tells prospects that the prospect the premium is 2% of whatever the face amount may be.

“We are selling the concept to people who can afford the premium. Remember that we have done our fact-find, we know assets and liabilities and we understand their cash flow.”

The legendary MDRT speaker cited the importance of reviewing clients’ estate tax planning, even for those who think they have done a good job.

He offered the case of Jacqueline Kennedy as an example.

“When she passed away all the media, newspapers, television magazines, and radio emphasized how good a job she had done on her estate planning. And that was true.”

“She had done a good job. However, after her death when the IRS had calculated the amount of taxes due it proved her planning was not sufficient.”

“Her family was forced to sell her jewelry and other assets in order to raise the cash to pay the taxes,” he said.

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Much of the overall simple philosophy that Mehdi Fakharzadeh follows, when meeting with clients, is what you will find in our Found Money Management™ Life Insurance Marketing & Sales Tool Kit.

 Mehdi shares his special knowledge with IPS members at the Trusted Advisor Success Training™!

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WITH THE PASSING OF THE YEARS, I am ever more convinced that one of the most meaningful traits of superior men and women is their ability to make themselves obey their own commands.

This characteristic, this ability of exceptional persons to make themselves carry out the orders they give themselves, is not merely evidence of their superiority. I submit to you, but rather is a basic reason, a fundamental ingredient contributing to their achievements. This ability to tell themselves to do what they know they should do, and then to make themselves do it. I am convinced, is truly a major contributor to their successes and their superiority.

Most of us know well enough which things we are doing from day to day are things we should not do and know equally well those things we are not doing which we should do.

Most of us can tell ourselves, easily enough, to do some one of those things which would be useful or helpful to us. Most of us know the things we should do, and we faithfully intend to do them "someday." But once having so directed ourselves, we lesser people often forget the command, or disregard it or postpone it, until finally the order has become of no effect, and its intended value is lost forever. By contrast, superior beings prove their superiority by carrying out the order, by obeying their command, by doing what they have directed themselves to do and thus evidencing their capacity for self-obedience.
 

SUPERIOR PERSONS CAN ORDER THEMSELVES to eat and drink in moderation - and make it stick. They can direct themselves to keep reasonably regular hours, to get enough sleep and at least a modicum of exercise, to work earnestly while they work, to play wholeheartedly while they play, and to keep the two in proper balance - and can make it stick. They can remember their intentions, and remember the reasons they had for arriving at those intentions and for issuing their commands, and can successfully require themselves to do what they tell themselves to do.

Superior men and women direct themselves to lose five pounds in the next five weeks, or ten pounds in the next ten, and having so instructed themselves can make the order stick. They can push themselves away from the table when they have satisfied their hunger, and can restrain themselves from eating merely to satisfy their appetites. They can step on the scales each morning and record their progress truthfully and impersonally. They can stay with their plans, direct their efforts, and realize their goals.

Superior beings can list the jobs to be done tomorrow, and can designate the order in which they are to be tackled: and, when tomorrow comes, can see that they do what they have told themselves is to be done. Thus, if something must go undone, it is a task of lesser importance, for the days priority list will have caused them to give attention to the work of the day in order of essentially, and not in order of appeal, or convenience, or even of urgency.
 

"You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the
process of becoming the person you most want to be.
Put your future in good hands - your own."
Mark Victor Hansen
 

SUPERIOR PERSONS CAN TELL THEMSELVES to start on time so that they can and will arrive on time - and having issued the command, can make themselves obey it. Consequently, they become famed for their punctuality, and for their consideration thus expressed for those with whom they have appointments.

Superior men and women can maintain their solvency without excessive pain, and can achieve continuing financial progress, by telling themselves to save a suitable portion of every dollar which goes through their hands - and having issued the order, can make themselves obey. They can require of themselves fiscal fitness which will assure that their net worth will increase annually in proper proportion to the constantly diminishing aggregate value of their paychecks still to be collected. They can tell themselves to balance their budgets. to save the first pennies out of each dollar of income, to invest their sacred backlog of savings in absolute guarantees before allowing themselves to invest their optional funds more aggressively and can make their orders stick.
 

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."
Jesse Owens
 

SUPERIOR PERSONS CAN TELL THEMSELVES that they give some portion of their every day to continuous study and having thus directed themselves, can make themselves carry out the order. They must do this not merely because no one ever yet has had time enough to learn all that remains to be learned, but equally because civilization progresses at such a rate that much of what we should be studying today was unknown or undreamed of a decade ago, or even a year ago.

It is easy enough to know what one should do that now goes undone. It is easy enough to know what one should not do which now is being done. Achievement rests only in small part upon knowing what one would do, and only in small part upon telling one's self to do it: it rests principally upon one's ability, having issued the command, to cause the order to be obeyed.

I turn your attention now to an immortal line from Shakespeare, which reminds us that it isn't giving voice to the command that counts, It's the effectiveness of the order that matters.

Let us look at a scene from the third act of King Henry IV, Owen Glendower, renowned braggart, holds the stage. He is addressing his cousin and rival, Hotspur. We hear him proclaiming with characteristic vanity that he is "extraordinary." and endowed with greatness: that "the heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble" at the hour of his birth: that he can "command the devil." and can summon supernatural beings from the depths of the ocean. In this vein, we hear him say. "I can call spirits from the vastly deep." And to this Hotspur replies. "Why, so can I or so can any man, - but will they come when you do call for them?"

THAT IS HOTSPUR'S CHALLENGE, and that is the point of my story. Many can direct themselves to mend their manners, to change their ways, to do the things they know they should -- but, having done so, will they obey the command?