Earlier this week, I met with the top sales executive at a leading supply chain software company. We talked about many things, but one topic interested me the most. He mentioned that after neglecting sales training for some time, the company is now investing in this area again. Why? Here are some paraphrased comments:

The buying audience today is very different than years ago, and much more educated. Many of the people we’re selling to today [executives in large multinational companies] can write books on supply chain management. We can’t just go in and tell them something they already know, or maybe even know better than us. These executives want to keep ‘pushing the envelope’ in supply chain management, so they’re looking for ideas and solutions to help them get there.

Salespeople need a different set of skills to succeed today. Relationships alone are no longer sufficient; a salesperson now has to earn the trust and respect of the executives they are meeting with. This means they have to contribute more knowledge to the conversation, instead of just setting up meetings and dinner reservations.

The days of PowerPoint selling are over. You now have to demonstrate your true capabilities by executing very detailed scripted demos. Companies are buying software to implement, not to sit on a shelf [which happened many times in the past].

The “Old Boys Network” is no longer. We’re seeing a lot more women in leadership roles, for example, and greater diversity [ethnic, cultural, geographic] in the make-up of supply chain teams.

I’ve seen similar trends in the course of my ten years here at ARC. Years ago, it was relatively rare for me to come across a female supply chain or logistics executive. Today, while women are still underrepresented in the field, there are many more women in supply chain leadership roles. Last month, for example, I interviewed Sandy Evett, VP of Logistics and Customer Service at Barilla, and Diane Van Wagner, Director of Transportation at Dannon, to get their perspectives on software-as-a-service TMS (the interview was videotaped by LeanLogistics and will air soon). Logistics Quarterly published a feature some time ago on women in supply chain management (available here) and the publication has a special section on its website dedicated to the topic. Even in the supply chain software world, women are rising in the ranks. For example, Monica Wooden is the CEO of MeruryGate, a SaaS TMS vendor and an ARC client.

I’m also seeing more Hispanics and African Americans in supply chain leadership positions. For example, Angel L. Mendez, a native of Cuba (where my family is from), is the Senior Vice President, Customer Value Chain Management at Cisco. Mr. Mendez gave a keynote address on sustainability at last year’s ARC Forum (you can watch a video of the presentation here).

I also agree that today’s buying audience is more educated and forward-thinking than years ago. More universities around the world are offering degrees in supply chain management, and there’s an ever-growing wealth of supply chain knowledge available on the Web. But I think the knowledge bar has been raised mostly at large, multi-national companies. Many small and midsize companies, unfortunately, are still relatively low on the supply chain education and sophistication curve. This applies to many third-party logistics (3PL) providers too.

Here are my key takeaways from all this:

• If you are in the market for a supply chain software solution or outsourced service, take a page from the innovators in the industry, and challenge the salesperson to tell you something you don’t know, to show you how to ‘push the envelope’ in your industry.
• If you’re a supply chain software vendor or 3PL, does your sales team have the knowledge and skills to sell effectively to a more educated and sophisticated buying audience? For many 3PLs, I think the answer is no. Some ideas to fix the problem: hire a top sales executive from a leading supply chain software firm to help you transform your sales processes and techniques. Or have your sales team attend a software vendor’s sales training boot camp. This is not unprecedented. According to the sales executive I mentioned earlier, the CEO of a 3PL and its entire sales team attended their sales training seminar several years ago.
• The “Old Boys Network” is giving way to a whole new kind of network, more diverse in every way imaginable. It’s the hand pushing the envelope in supply chain management.