Finding The Rhythm Of Sales Success With Justin Lohman

Sales success is something that all people in the field of sales aspire to. So what do you need to reach the next level? Samuel Gbadebo discusses all things medical sales with Rithm AI cofounder Justin Lohman. Justin talks about the events that lead to the creation of Rithm AI, their goals, and who the project aims to help.  Learn what it takes to hit the bigtime in medical sales and take your game to a higher level through this conversation.

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Finding The Rhythm Of Sales Success With Justin Lohman

We continue our discussion with Justin Lohman. He is one of the Cofounders of a software called Rithm that allows sales professionals to get their territories in order. If you haven’t read part one of this interview, stop reading right now and go read that first. If you have, then you are in the right place to stay tuned for part two. As always, thank you for reading. I do hope you enjoy this interview.

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It’s impressive. It’s exactly what you said. I got to play with it a little bit. I look at it like, “It tells you where you can be the best resource within your territory.” With that concept at the core, it helps you build out from there. The AI does the work for you as opposed to you trying to figure it out, making mistakes, and maybe getting a time wrong or an office wrong. It’s human error that happens. That is very cool. Correct me if I’m wrong. I like to believe that there was a moment where you said, “Something has to be done about this.” I don’t know if you had some tech friends and you said, “What do you think about this idea?” Talk to us about if it happened that way and when it was.

It’s a great question that definitely had that moment. What I started doing was I would go to a new town, not knowing where to be. It was totally inefficient driving in all the wrong directions. I go into the office and they are like, “If you were here before 9:00, I would have been there before 9:00 had I known that.” It was all that information. I started looking around to see if this technology existed. I talked to a lot of people in medical and pharma. Nobody knew of anything. They said, “Have you tried Salesforce?” I said, “Yes, everybody has it. It doesn’t do what I’m asking for with that next step.” I only knew one person in tech and this individual invented the first smartphone. He is a genius.

How did you know him? How was that person in your circle?

He is a good family friend. I knew he would take my call. It spurred on an interesting discussion that lasted for months. He started tinkering around and he called me back. I had forgotten about the conversation at this point. I was doing my thing, working my butt off in the field, and having a good time. I love sales. I got a phone call. I answered and I was like, “What is going on?” “I will take on this project for you.” I thought to myself, “What did I get into?” It was the best thing because I knew I was not the only person. I was riding with people all the time and they were asking me, “Do you have any suggestions?”

At that moment, I thought to myself, “We’ve got to build it.” I want to build it from a salesperson’s perspective, not an engineer’s perspective. I don’t want features that an engineer thinks we need. I want features that salespeople know they need and that’s it. It’s things that help you to be more efficient and use your time wisely. If you are spending your time in the right places at the right times with the right frequency talking about the right message, you are going to be successful.

To make it abundantly clear to any of our readers who would find value in this product, let’s say you are a representative. You know your schedule. You know you are supposed to be. You’ve got everything pretty organized for the most part. I will use Veeva and HubSpot as examples. It’s something you are very comfortable using and you hear about Rithm. Why should that person look into utilizing Rithm?

Let me talk about who our target audience is. Who can we help? We don’t want people downloading this and things like that if it’s not going to help them. Let’s be clear about this. There are three types of salespeople that Rithm helps the most. It’s salespeople that are new to medical, pharma, dental, or eye care. I will call that the medical space. If you are new, it’s going to be overwhelming. If you are three months in, you are nodding your head as you are reading this blog, going, “Amen. Somebody understands my problem.” We do.

Salesperson number two is the salespeople that want to be more productive, sell more, plan less, increase their rankings, and make more in commissions. It’s the type of people that Samuel, you speak with and help on a regular basis. The third type of person is salespeople who recently had changed, whether that’s changing companies within their industry, changing industries, or changing product lines.

If you used to work with rheumatology and now you are working with dermatology, that’s not easy to change in your mind because you have had these habits that you created, “I got here on Thursday and Friday.” If those products aren’t what your company wants you to sell, you are wasting your time and spinning the wheels. This would help those three types of people the most.

What about duplication of efforts? Most companies provide a platform for their employees to utilize in the field and now you have your tool which supports that. When I think of it firsthand, I think, “I’m going to duplicate my efforts because I scoured my territory. I made sure it’s clean and has all these providers and accounts. It’s proper with the system that the company provided me. With this tool, I’m going to have to do it again and take all this time to do it again.” How was that not the case?

There’s a little bit of work. There should be one in anything that you are going to be successful with. On day one, you import your information. It’s not anything that can’t be shared. It’s your information. Along with that, the AI part of Rithm is going to learn your habits. What it’s going to do is you put in a little bit of work in month one. It’s not grueling or anything like that. It’s built for salespeople. The duplication is you taking the tip of your finger to your phone and saying, “Yes, I was there.” If duplication is the big headache, it doesn’t get easier than touching your phone, which is already in your purse or pocket. I promise you.

The other part of all of that is with Veeva, Salesforce, or whatever CRM you are using. There’s a gap that salespeople are saying, “How can I be more successful?” You can’t lean on Veeva to help with all this. You can’t lean on whatever CRM you are using. They are great at what they do. They just don’t do this. If you are one of these people in category two or type two that wants to be more productive and plan less, remember, after about a month, it’s all done for you. It’s all of your planning for the rest of the time while you are here. If you leave, you get to keep your database.

For a manager reading, “Let’s say our company purchases Rithm and we are going to be using Rithm. Is there duplication?” It depends on whatever package you want. If you want the Teams Package, there’s no user integration, but there can be with the Enterprise Level. Samuel, I know you have used Rithm. You have this visibility into your team and you can help them on a more granular level.

When you are in medical or pharma, one of the most frustrating things is not knowing all the customers. You might know the top 5 or 10 doctors that somebody calls on. You ask about them all the time, but you never get into the nitty-gritty. You don’t dig on moving the people who are in the trial stage up to the user or advocate. It’s about helping every level. That’s why I have trained, managed, and sold. I have enjoyed every facet of sales, but I have noticed that this isn’t out there. If you are not opposed to touching your fingertip to your phone, that’s how Rithm go through beyond that.

Sales Success: When you are in medical or pharma, one of the most frustrating things is not knowing all the customers.

I wanted you to speak on that. I will support exactly what you are saying. It’s pretty straightforward and fairly easy to use. This is exciting. What hopes do you have for Rithm? You have been able to pilot this with a number of people. You know what is valuable and what works. What do you see in the future for this platform?

You talked about the piloting. We have users now, which is great. We have worked out a lot of the bugs and all of those things, which is part of all that beta testing and piloting. We had a beta-user double sales in their territory over the course of a year. That’s absolutely phenomenal. An extra $50,000 in your pocket, I don’t know that that would hurt. What we hope is to bring true and real sales technology to help people that are in these three categories especially. We would love it for individuals, teams, and enterprises.

We are focused on helping new people. It’s the people who are going through change. We are focused on people who are ready to turn it up a notch. They are sick of being ranked in the middle. Their commission checks aren’t as big as somebody else on their team and they are thinking, “I can do this. I need to get going.” They lean on guys like you and people like me to help in these areas. I want to give back. I want to help salespeople understand through my experience and through my family friend helping out with this technology that never existed before.

I always ask this with my guests. I’m going to give you three types of audiences here that you like to share with them. Number one is the person that’s trying to get into the medical sales industry. What is something you like to share with them? Let’s start there and then I will jump into the other two.

I talked to a guy who is sick of his industry. He wants to get into pharma or medical. I should send him on to you. All that being said, people need to realize the difference between big pharma, medium and small pharmaceuticals, eye care, dental, and then medical device. There are different levels. There are small companies filling a device. There are startup companies. You should think about what you want. Ask and talk to experts like yourself that can point them in the right direction with their personality for success. They are not spinning their wheels trying to get in at Big Pharma 101. All of a sudden, they are like, “I don’t like this.” That’s a terrible way to start. I would do the research first. I wouldn’t just take a job that somebody gives me.

The second type of individual is the person that’s in the industry. They are trying to step up their game, be more of a resource to their territory, and do more for the patients that they are representing a drug or device with. What would you share with them?

First of all, get a mentor or coach. Second, look for the right type of technology for you. Start looking around. In Rithm, the first month is $1. If you don’t like it after a month, you throw out $1. Do the things that are uncomfortable. Do the things that you know you have cut corners on. Plan better. Talk to your manager or somebody you trust in the industry. Get a mentor and guide. Find a trainer and network with people. These are all things that I would highly recommend.

If you are listening to a podcast, you are already on this correct road. Read sales books and listen to sales podcasts. There aren’t a whole lot. Sign one you like, find two you like and listen to in-between visits. You might have an hour’s drive. That’s a great time to knock out a couple of podcasts. That would be my best advice for that number two type of person.

Number three are the leaders of the industry, decision-makers, and managers. What would you like to share with them?

What I would say about leadership is times have changed and understanding that the rep’s needs are changing daily, weekly, and monthly. You might have had open access to people in the past that you have to find workarounds. It might be budgetary changes to up their launch budgets. It might be understanding that some people need to work a few days from home because if you are on medical devices, it’s setting up appointments a lot. It’s more Zooms and more virtual there.

It’s trying to get people back into offices. Face-to-face is the number one way to sell, but it also understands that salespeople are dealing with this change. It’s hard. The one thing that’s constant in sales has changed. If you are stuck where you are, you might want to look in the mirror and say, “How are things changing? How are we changing with it? What tools are we enabling our salespeople with? Is it a CRM? Are we finding things that are next level to give our people the best shot at success?”

Where can people find this platform?

Go to our website, RithmAI.com. Let me explain the name briefly. Rithm is short for an algorithm. There’s an algorithm that takes into account all the variables you deal with in the medical, pharma, eye care, and dental space in this medical space. As a salesperson, Samuel, you know when you are in Rithm or when you are in the zone, you can’t be stopped. It’s that dual name with Rithm, which we thought was clever or maybe you guys don’t. Now, you at least understand the name. Rithm is the program. Go on there, hit the orange button, try it for $1, or call us.

Justin, thank you for the time. You are doing some amazing things out there. We look forward to more progress with Rithm. Hopefully, a lot of our readers will be checking it out and using it.

Sales Success: The one thing that’s constant in sales has changed. If you are stuck where you are, you might want to look in the mirror and say, “How are things changing? How are we changing with it?

Samuel, it was an honor to be on with you. You are awesome. Keep doing what you are doing. You are great at sales. If you are on the fence about joining one of Samuel’s works, please do. He is super sharp and great to work with.

Thank you, Justin.

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That was Justin Lohman with Rithm. You might be someone out there who has wanted to get into the medical sales industry, but you don’t have the sales experience or haven’t had a position in the past that had anything to do with medicine. You might think you simply don’t know what to do or how to do it, but you are clear on this. You know that you want to make an impact. You want to have a career that changes the lives of patients. You want to be a part of the contribution to help providers provide better care for those patients.

If this is you, stop thinking and wondering about it. Let’s do something about it. Go to EvolveYourSuccess.com and select Attain A Medical Sales Role. Set yourself up to have a conversation with someone from Evolve Your Success who can sit down with you and go over how you can make this dream that you have an actual reality and get the medical sales position you deserve.

If you are someone in the field and you are a medical sales professional and you are thinking to yourself, “This year, I want to show up. I know that I can perform better. I know that I can be a better resource to my customers. I know that I can help this industry provide a better quality of care to patients. I know I can do it, but I’m not sure how. I have been trying and the things that I have been doing have not been working. I’m ready to finally close that gap,” visit EvolveYourSuccess.com and select Improve Sales Performance.

Get in touch with someone from Evolve Your Success that’s going to sit down with you and go over how you can close that gap. Be the performer and resource you were meant to be and make the impact you know you are meant to make. As always, we do our best to bring you guests that bring resources, innovation, different perspectives, know-how, and experience to the medical sales industry. Make sure you tune in for another episode.

 Important Links

• Rithm
• Improve Sales Performance

About Justin Lohman

Justin Lohman is a cofounder of RithmAI, and he is focused on improving the salesperson-client relationship. After nearly two decades of selling, training, and managing in the pharmaceutical and medical industry, he has seen the good and bad of the medical industry. Justin is helping bring the the medical industry up to speed with technology that salespeople really need to make their lives easier, better and more profitable.