DMEconnected is an online marketplace where medical providers can easily find vendors and medical representatives within the desired area based on a specific product, just by asking Alexa! Samuel Gbadebo’s guest is Courtney Richards, the founder and CEO of DMEconnected. Continuing with their conversation, Courtney demonstrates to Samuel how DMEconnected works seamlessly with the Alexa system. Courtney and Samuel also discuss how medical providers have greater chances of building better relationships with DMEconnected, how DMEconnected is different from its competitors, and why DMEconnected is the most practical solution. Join in the conversation to learn more!
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Become A Solution-Based Rep On DMEconnected With Courtney Richards
We are back in this episode with Courtney Richards for part two. He is the Founder of DMEconnected. They are a company that specializes in helping provider and accounts be much more efficient when it comes to what they need for their patients by utilizing a software to create a seamless exchange between what they need and who they can get it from all through the software. He has even it a step further by allowing the software to have Alexa capabilities so a provider can just mention what they need and who needs to be contacted. That rep can then be notified, making use of the forms that they need that the rep provides, or they can even message to have the rep show up at the office all through the software.
It makes things much more efficient. It keeps things clean and simple. It allows providers and reps to get what they need whenever they need it, all for the betterment of the patients. I’m going to play an actual segment of Courtney using the software. He talked about it and he is about it. He is going to use the Alexa software and his software to talk about what he might need, and give us an experience of how a provider of staff will use this program. We are going to jump right back into the interview until we take it to the end. As always, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the interview.
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“Alexa, open DMEconnected.
Welcome back to DMEconnected. What do you want to do?
Find OXY in zip code 30060.
What insurance are you searching for?
Humana.
You searched for vendors. I found four. Shall I email you the list?
Yes.
Your email was sent. What next?
Alexa, find OXY rep in zip code 30060.
You searched for sales reps. I found three. Should I email the list to you?
Yes.
Your email was sent. What do you want to do next?
Find codes.
What’s the service you want?
OXY.
You searched for ICD codes for OXY. I found nine. What next?
Text rep.
What’s the call tag?
001.
I’ll text Courtney and ask them to contact you. What number do you want them to call you at? Starting with your area code.
(404) 539-3913
Let’s verify that I heard that correctly. Is (404) 539-3913 correct?
Yes.
I just sent a text to Courtney. What do you want to do now?
Alexa, exit.”
You would see that I got a text here from the Alexa system. Those are some of the prompts consistently. I asked her based on the code OXY, meaning oxygen. I asked her to find me OXY vendors in that zip code. She found some and then you heard the ding. Those are the emails that were sent to me. I asked her to find me OXY rep. That sales reps, that same zip code, she found that, and then I asked her to find codes. She asked me, “What service,” and I said OXY. She brought up the most commonly used ICD-10 codes for oxygen therapy that should be reimbursed. I asked her to text the rep. My code is 001 so I know. She texts me and says, “Courtney from such and such company needs help with the patient.”
These are the prompts that they are going to be using. Everything is going to be touchless. There’s another medical practice out here. I’m not going to mention the name, but we’re trying to establish this relationship and they’re completely paperless. We try to see how we can incorporate Alexa into your system as well too with our system. Even a medical assistant can say, “Find me the closest CPAP vendor. Text this rep. What insurance is this?” That’s all the capabilities of what we’re introducing.
Thanks for that demo, Courtney. I can’t wait to hear more stories of this in action.
Thank you, Samuel. I appreciate it.
You had this experience and decided to do it. How long have you been promoting your service?
We incorporated it in 2019. 2020 was when we started to get out there pushing it, and then the pandemic happened. When the pandemic happened, there was a news article that was done on our company. We had all these vendors reach out and say, “Our guys experienced the same thing.” We’re like, “I know because I can’t get into the office. I can’t get into the hospital.” Everything that we’ve been saying, “This is here and it’s now.” It’s been going on for two-plus years that we put them out, we’re promoting and letting them know, we’re building our relationships. We have to get the word out that this is available now, not yesterday. This is now.
The same nurse that you had lunch with however many years ago could get this service, get her reps in line, and all these things she’s been doing with her folder. She could go to this service solely and get exactly what she needs whenever she needs it.
Yes, and it’s free for the medical provider. When I say medical provider, I’m talking about the medical community. From a skilled nursing facility, a hospital or urgent care. No matter where you are if you’re a part of that medical staff, you can go to DMEconnected.com. There’s a button there. You could sign up and that’s it.
You went back to her and now she’s on DMEconnected.
I did not. She moved to the West Coast. I lost contact with her. However, her medical assistants are on it. They are the one that was running around. They can show some efficiency in that office.
Walk me through this. I’m a medical device sales rep and I’ve had the same issue you’ve been talking about. I’m feeling the frustration and I’m like, “This is interesting.” What do you want me to do? What can I expect to experience?
What I want you to do, first of all, is go to DMEconnected.com. There’s a button there that says, “Vendors.” You go to the tab of a sales rep and you sign up. That’s all you need to do. The service is $100 a year. What we do is by you being on DMEconnected, you’re increasing the chances of building better relationships, which are existing customers as well as new customers.
Are reps proactively going to their customers and saying, “Do you want DMEconnected?” As the rep, how can I know that my customers are going to be on DMEconnected? What’s being done to make sure they are on DMEconnected.
We have our existing reps as well. We do have some reps out there in the field, and we’ve been hiring, to go into those medical practices and say, “Get on DMEconnected.” Another thing that we tell a rep is that “If you introduce this to your medical providers, they’re going to love you. You’d be the first one to let them know that not only are you there to try and solicit new patients, but you are concerned about their inefficiencies within their office, their pain points.” You become a solution-based rep. You’re not always going in and ask them for things, but you’re bringing them something of value. That’s what we like to tell the reps. It will be beneficial for both of you guys. This can also need into the Alexa conversation. You want to be able to have that connection with that medical office or provider to make sure they always know that you’re available by having all your information available on DMEconnected.
From your experience in Philips, do a lot of reps have a service who are using like DMEconnected that’s making things a little bit easier? I’m assuming there are competitors out there.
There are some competitors out there like DMEhub. Another competitor is Parachute. Another one is Strata Health. There are other competitors out there that are doing similar services. The way how we differentiate ourselves is we’re not only focusing on ordering the product and that’s what it is. They become pigeon-toed and they are great at what they do. I have to commend them that, “If you go and do the electronic ordering, that’s what they’re good for.”
What we’ve done is created an infrastructure that’s going to help their medical practice with everything else that they’re doing. They don’t only have to come to DMEconnected if they want to do an electronic order. We added features such as telemedicine. If a provider needs to do telemedicine, they can do that within the marketplace. If they want to send a secure file to someone, they can do that without faxing. These are some of the capabilities that are within the marketplace. The future that we’re getting into is we’re introducing the Alexa units that have our software, which is patent-pending, to help out that medical provider.
Walk us through the Alexa units. People read this and they’re saying, “That’s good. That sounds like you’re excited about it, but how was it great for me?” Give us the value of this Alexa service.
The Alexa services are the Amazon Alexa & Echos Devices. We’re getting these in medical offices. Why? Because we got with some Amazon developers and we developed the software which is called Acacia. They can now use voice activation to find the information. Medical providers no longer have to search for anything. They can turn to and ask Alexa to find that information if they need to find an order form or insurance or a sales rep. These are all some of the capabilities of the Alexa unit as well as you can tell Alexa to text the rep.
Imagine you’re a rep, you wake up in the morning and you have text messages from your referrals saying, “They need help with patients.” I already know how to route my day. I’m going down the list. I’m like, “These people are the ones that text me,” because we’re talking about the availability. You’re not going to be able to be everywhere all at the same time, but with a web application or the Alexa unit, those are available 24/7. If a medical provider has a question to say, “Samuel, do you accept Humana in California?” They don’t have to call you. They can do it directly through the Alexa unit or the web application. If you’re a sales rep and your profile is in there, you can come up too, “I accept Humana for oxygen.”
[bctt tweet=”Become a solution-based rep. You’re not always going in to ask for things, but you’re bringing something of value.” via=”no”]
In the example you gave us, a provider leaves that message on Alexa and the rep gets a text or something like that.
Yes. You tell Alexa exactly what you need to do. You’ll say, “Alexa, text rep.” Every sales rep that comes into our marketplace is assigned a call type number. Because we’re using artificial intelligence, even before you get into an office, they will know who you are and what you’re about by your profile. Even if you go in and you see an Alexa unit that they’re using, you can say, “My call tag number 001. If you ever need to contact me, just tell Alexa to call 001.” Even if they lose your business card or anything like that, you’re part of DMEconnected and they can get to you much quicker.
You can also say to call and say your name, and the service will find whoever that rep is and pass them through a call.
Not exactly. You have to have that call tag number because there are 1,000 Samuels. That’s the only way that we can differentiate between what rep is being called. Your number is your number. It’s golden. It’s going to go into other things that will be released when we’re rolling it out, but you can tell Alexa to call this rep and it’s going to ask you for the call tag number.
You can look up any reps’ call tag number if you happen to forget just by going to the system and typing it.
That is correct.
I understand that you say you’re developing a marketplace and you’re going beyond ordering. Give me some more tangibles here on why a rep reading this should go with DMEconnected as opposed to a competitor doing it the way they’ve been doing it.
The first thing they’re going to see is pricing. Let’s be realistic. The pricing is what we like to let the reps know. Another thing is that because of the technology that we’re developing, you always got to invest in your future. On the Alexa platform, there are speeches that we’re going to be rolling for that rep that only we’re going to be able to provide. That’s only because it’s through the Alexa system. I would like to be a little bit more clear with you but I cannot because we are still working it out. Keep in mind that our artificial intelligence is what’s going to be helping propel some of these medical offices into getting tasks done. By you being on DMEconnected, you’re with the first platform that’s utilizing that. This is why you need to invest now because the way that you’re doing business today is not how you’re going to be doing business tomorrow. I have to quickly learn that you have to be agile and keep adjusting. For $99, you come on and it’s a yearly subscription. You get all of these benefits.
If anyone wants to learn more, they go to DMEconnected.com. It’s all there for them to sign up and learn everything they possibly can.
One of the things I like to point out to sales reps is to think about this being your assistant. If you can have an assistant in the field helping you out, then that will help you tremendously with the touchpoints that you have. Even if you’re a sales manager and you have these white areas that you don’t have a sales rep, by DMEconnected being in those areas, it will help increase your referrals that you receive that from that medical office. You don’t have to have a physical presence there. All our communications are through Zoom or some type of meeting space. There’s not a lot of face to face one. The thing that the pandemic has exposed is this is going to be the new way of doing business. Get into DMEconnected, come on this journey with us, and we’ll show you, “This what you’re going to be able to do and this is what we’re going to do in the future.”
How can people get in touch with you, Courtney?
You can always reach me at Courtney.Richards@DMEconnected.com. I’m the Founder and CEO, but I check every email. One of the things that I’ve lived by is trying to give back to people within 24 hours. I live and die by that. Even though I’m not in the field anymore, my medical providers still call me and email me at 5:30 and say, “Courtney, I can’t get in contact with anyone. Can you help me?” That’s what we’re still doing. Even though you have these relationships, you’re always in the field. That’s what I want to let people know.
Courtney, we can’t wait to see how DMEconnected grows and all the reps that get on it and find the service incredibly valuable. We’ll be keeping in touch with you. We’ll probably have to do a follow-up episode to see exactly what you guys are working on. Thank you so much for being on the show.
I appreciate this, Samuel. You have a good one.
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That was Courtney Richards. I can’t wait to see where this goes. I know he has competitors out there, but this is interesting, especially the Alexa component. I wonder how it’s all going to play out when a lot of companies are using this because I see the value and I’m sure they do too. On the first roll-out of anything, it’s always an interesting environment to see how it works, what it does and what it changes as far as the efficiency is for all these accounts. It’s something that people can benefit from now. You’ve gotten to see it and know exactly who he is, why he started it, what goes behind it, what the program itself does, and even a sample of how it works. This is something that you see yourself utilizing as a provider. If you’re reading this, I am asking you to make sure you visit his site and get a conversation going. See if you can utilize the software and get on the database so that by the time everyone else is using it, you will be current and you’ll be able to partake as well.
As always, I like to bring guests that have a story to tell, something that they’re doing that have made big changes in their lives for whatever reason. This guest took a huge leap into entrepreneurship. He’s on his way to change the way healthcare is providing. It’s a beautiful thing. If you’re out there and thinking to yourself, “I want to make a change now.” Maybe you want to get into the industry. You’ve been dreaming of being a pharmaceutical sales rep, a medical device sales rep, a biotech sales rep or something along those lines, and you finally want to make a move. You need to make sure that you visit us at EvolveYourSuccess.com or visit me on LinkedIn, Samuel Adeyinka. Shoot me a message. Let’s have a conversation and get you to one of our programs that can help you get into the position you believe you deserve to be in.
If you’re someone out there that wants to improve their sales performance and let’s take it a step further. Of course, you want to improve your sales performance, but what if you want to create a brand within your company? You want to be recognized as someone who can make things happen. You want to put yourself in a position to move to a different level. Maybe you’ve always been entertaining management, but you haven’t been able to make it happen. Maybe you wanted to take the executive track, but you haven’t been able to put the things together to get going. You need to look into our sales development program where we help you get to where you need to go wherever it is in your career. We laid the groundwork through our program and you get to realize those dreams that you’re always thinking about year after year that for whatever reason you haven’t materialized.
If that’s something that you know you want and you want to experience, you need to visit our website or go ahead and reach out to me on my LinkedIn. Shoot me a message and let’s help you get to where you want to go and evolve your success. Thank you, everyone. We put a lot of work into this show and do what we can to bring you the best guests that have innovations, that have incredible life stories, that have done significant things in their careers so that you can learn how they do it, what they do, and what you can apply to your career. Make sure you tune in for another episode and we will be seeing you soon.
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About Courtney Richards
Born in Kingston, Jamaica. Raised in Brooklyn, New York. I am the Founder/C.E.O. of DMEconnected. With over 10+ years of experience in the healthcare field. I made my bones in the Medical Device and Home Health Care space. I attended Graphic Communication Arts in NYC and the New York Institute of Technology.
I am naturally a creative person with an interest in the arts and technology. My story began working in the Printing/Advertising industry and I decided to make a career change because I felt uninspired by the work I was doing. I wanted to be in a career that was more front-facing and what I felt was making a difference in people’s lives.
Known for being fearless and a risk-taker, I decided to leave my “9-5” and a steady income and tackle my dreams full time as an entrepreneur/business owner. I created DMEconnected, which is a marketplace for medical providers to find information on vendors, products, and medical sales reps to help with their patients.
We also developed our Acacia Software. Acacia works hand in hand with an artificial intelligence platform that allows medical providers to find the information they are looking for by using voice prompts. Once the information is retrieved, it can be relayed back to the end-user by voice, visual display, or email.
I am passionate about making changes in the health care industry that will have a positive outcome on patients’ lives.
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I absolutely would not have this position without Samuel and the Evolve Your Success community. A lot of people my age would just stop trying, but EYS believed in me.
EYS allowed me to break into the industry in 90-Days after I had been trying on my own for over two years! I had lots of recruiter screenings, and a few interviews with hiring managers, but I was never offered a position.
Before EYS, I didn’t realize I was doing the bare minimum to get hired. I was applying everywhere, hoping to get noticed and waiting. It just wasn’t working! I didn’t know that that was not enough to compete in an industry this sought after, and against people who knew what I didn’t know about the process.
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Sports Medicine in Phoenix! I extend so much gratitude to the Evolve Your Success group as I land this role and get ready to pursue my dream job. I am a Physical Therapist who became a little stuck in the profession due to issues with reimbursement and the difficulty for continued growth upwards. I turned to EYS to assist me in learning about the medical sales industry and gain knowledgable mentors who were able to help coach me in this process. I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the best and good things will happen. I did work hard, but with the support of my mentors and other colleagues going through a career change, I felt a sense of community and it confirmed my drive to get into this industry. I have already learned so much through the interview process, and feel very blessed to have had the resources this group provided. I have made lifelong friends and I cannot wait to continue to follow others’ journeys to pursue this incredible field. I urge you to give Evolve Your Success a try to gain mentorship, guidance, and support through any career transition.
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