#communityovereverything: Perry Health
Hi there my name is Megan I am the community manager CityCentral Fort Worth and I'm sitting here with D. A. Allen, head of enrollment for Perry Health! Perry Health is a chronic care clinic that treats patients with diabetes. Perry Health owns a unique software that sends alerts back to their care utilizing telehealth!
Can you give a brief description of yourself and what you do?
My name is D.A. Allen and I'm a career sales guy and currently the head of enrollment for Perry Health! I've been in the industry of sales for 20 years. Right now, I work for Perry Health as I stated before. We are a group of individuals who take care of adults who live with a chronic illness diabetes. Our organization owns a proprietary software that sends alerts back to our care team, which is spread across the United States, we monitor adults as they check their blood sugar. It's called remote patient monitoring. We partner with the organization that creates the device. However, we have a care team who takes care of our actual patients, which we call members. The average adult who lives with this chronic illness, goes to the doctor every 90 days. However, we are that in between, we take care of them every single day, in between that and we educate them on diabetes, we help them with nutrition, exercise and setting smart goals, Things that are attainable to help them improve. In a year uh, in our studies and trials, we've seen a 2.5 point reduction in our members A one C. So, we created a go to market strategy with it. Also, one of the things that really think about is that with COVID-19, and this public health emergency individuals who have diabetes are prone to get covid because diabetes attacks the immune system, they are more susceptible to getting covid and it really keeps them safe. They are also able to have the support that they need seven days a week with our care team because we're available from 7 AM to 11 PM seven days a week.
What led you to this field?
Being a salesperson, I've always been big on the metrics and I'm a capitalist by definition. Right? However, I know quite a few people who live with these chronic illnesses and this type of business allows me to have a mission and metrics. So, for me it's the perfect mix of mission meeting my metrics. I still able to lead a sales organization still able to have an awesome product to put into the marketplace but I'm also helping! The baby boomers are the folks that I'm helping every single day, they helped build America. I am not here doing the things that I'm doing, having the access that I have without them. So, this is my way of paying them back.
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Two things, one being able to hire young folks who are just leaving college looking for a career and being able to help them build a promising career, being there to help them pay off college debt, buy their first homes, buy their first cool car, Go on dream vacations. That's one of the most rewarding pieces for me. On the other hand, when I get those messages back for the individuals that we take care of to say, hey, you helped me in my life, and I have sign in my office, and we count down how many lives were impacted that month. In the traditional sales world, we call it quota, and, in this world, we call it impacted lives. So those messages that I received from those individuals is a match, there is nothing more rewarding. When you see someone, I didn't know and see them living a more active life. They have more access and more resources because the period program and it's geared towards individuals who are in health desserts which most of us never even think about, especially as young people who have good health care plans and access to the doctor and can drive. There are people who live in the middle of the desert here in Texas and they don't have that same access so us being able to talk to them over the phone it changes their life.
What sets your company apart from its competitors?
One of the things that I would say sets us apart is the time that we are available for our members, we are available 7 a.m. To 11 p.m. Also, the care team that we have, our care team is unmatched. Mel, which is our clinical operations manager and Dr. Ravilla he's our medical director, down to our diabetes educators and nurses. The care that they're giving folks is amazing and before we get messages back, we do a lot of question asking so that we can get better real time. The feedback that we're receiving from our members are letting us know that they're doing a fantastic job. They truly care. They're not they're not in it for the wrong reasons. They're in it for all the right reasons. We have people on our care team who had diabetes who are using the program the same exact way that they're administering the program to our members. So, that's one of the major differences and then to the fact that tech health is new and were able to stride through with the way the world is. We make decisions based on our members, not based on how we feel or what we think, our members drive the way we run our business. So, the member experiences is truly the reason why were unmatched entire competitors.
What is your advice to give to people within your industry?
My biggest thing is, lead with love. I don't lead with the ego, I don't make decisions always based on the financials, but I lead with love, and I use the numbers as a driver, but not as a form of leadership. I truly make decisions from the way I would want someone to decide for me. With love and with good intentions. Know that no one knows everything and when you're making decisions know that the decisions that you make not only impact yourself, but they impact others. When I come to work every day, the decisions I make affect every single individual in our company from the CEO to the person who is going to sweep the floors tonight. I know that if I make a bad decision, someone may not be able to feed their families.
what are you doing to thrive in these times?
One thing is for sure communicating a lot with my team that's in New York and my folks that are spread across the country. We're staying in constant communication with one another and making sure that our vision is driven every single day and then sharing best practices and calibrating and recalibrating. We're constantly brainstorming and problem solving to make things better. Rather than waiting until there is a fire, we catch it when there is smoke. We have a saying, “tell me when it's smoke, don't tell me when it's fire”, because when it's smoke, we can adjust when everything's on fire, all you're doing is looking for a water hose to put it out. We have discussions real time when things are smoking and right now, I can share with you that being an early stage startup, there's always going to be some type of smoke. The really the real thing is being able to communicate with one another and say, “hey, we have a problem”, and put all our minds together to have a solution to it.
What is the greatest personal and professional advice you've ever received?
The greatest professional advice I've ever received was from one of my mentors and his name is Michael Larmer. It was at Comcast, and at the time I was an account executive for Comcast corporate many years ago, and I was in the top 5% of all salespeople in the nation. He told me one day “I need to talk to you” and I'm on the phone and at that time I was really ego driven, making a ton of money. He proceeded to say, “D.A. put the customer on hold for a moment.” In my head I’m saying “no.” Mind you this dude is the Senior Director, so much higher than my position at the time. I put the customer on hold, and he tells me “hey, I want you to join this leadership development program.” Again, my response was “no I'm cool doing what I'm doing.” He turned beet red, “D.A. If you want to sit here and make $100,000 a year and that's all than you do that!” In front of a room of 50 people and stormed away. Later on that day, I'm like, I'm probably get fired today. I go to his office, and he tells me, “D.A. I'm not telling you to do because I don't think you're good at selling., I'm telling you to do this because I see something else IN you, sometimes you will take a few steps back to take a whole lot of steps forward. “ He said, “I want you to join this leadership development program, it’s going to change your life so take a chance on yourself.” So that was the best piece of advice, take a chance for myself, not as a salesperson, but as a sales leader and that's what I did! Now the greatest piece of advice I've ever received on a personal level is to live, let live and always forgive and that came from my wife. She didn't say it in those exact words. However, she understood I came from a tough upbringing from the south side of Chicago, and I carried so much of that into my life as a man. She told me many, many years ago if I learned to forgive and let people live their life and love unconditionally, I'll be a happy man. Sure enough, all these years later I'm a very happy man.
Thank you so much for taking the time to interview with us D.A., do you have any more questions for us today or any comments?
No, just keep doing what you're doing. You're a very upbeat person, Megan. Thank you. It's been a pleasure working with you every single day. My team is happy to be here, and we have great views here in this part of Fort Worth and like I sent the note to you, everything is very modern and clean here and that's big deal to me. You encompass some of the things that Fort Worth stands for, the artwork here and décor. When you get here you get the true vibe with just a few steps away from Sundance Square, and plenty of food places to eat at. So, it's in a prime location we love it!