Intelligent Audit's David Wedekind Details Why Customers are Looking for Strategic Partners: Pros to Know Award

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: My name is Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive, and I am here with David Wedekind, Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Intelligent Audit. David is a recipient of this year's Pros to Know Award in the Top Transportation Innovators category. David, congratulations, thank you so much for joining me today. Let's talk about you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey, and how you got to this current stage in your career.

David Wedekind: I've been fortunate to work in supply chain transportation for about 17 years now. When I started, I was really on the operational end of the process, and got really in the weeds on how shippers are effectively leveraging transportation providers to drive cost savings, improve visibility, deliver packages to their customers.

I've also got a lot of experience in the consulting world, so helping shippers execute transportation through TMS software, as well as just getting in the weeds on what are the right products for their end solutions.

And was very fortunate to get exposure across a lot of industry verticals, and frankly, to have resources around me who helped teach me what really are shippers looking for when they're leveraging transportation tools, or they're working with third-party providers, so that you could tailor solutions to each client's specific needs.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: One of the things outlined in your submission is how you work closely with executive leaders and key stakeholders to deeply understand their operational challenges, priorities, and their success criteria. What are some of the common challenges and priorities that you're seeing today's clients face, and what do you attribute these challenges and priorities to?

David Wedekind: If anything, transportation is often cyclical, especially with rates, but in the last 5-6 years, it's been very volatile in light of a lot of the macro conditions that are outside of these executives' control. And so, for transportation leaders, they're really looking for partners who can help them understand ways to be dynamic and to address a lot of these changing priorities that often take place when you have a plan, and then that plan gets interrupted. You know, what are you supposed to do? And so these executives are looking for partners who can help them understand what are other shippers doing today.

That will effectively mitigate exposure to some of these larger issues. What kind of tools can they implement to improve their own operations, both internally and then externally with their transportation partners?

And then, what are some of the things strategically they can be thinking about to offset and become a shipper of choice when the market does swing back to, in this case, the carriers, which today we're starting to see. And, I think those shippers who took a proactive approach to managing relationships have been more successful securing capacity, certainly having the tools their teams need to operate effectively, and altogether, just improving what they're doing day-to-day.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: Over the past 12 months, you've played a pivotal role in expanding Intelligent Audit's enterprise customer base by securing 4 new strategic accounts across retail, apparel, and manufacturing sectors. Kind of walk us through some of the key elements in being able to secure a new business in new sectors, especially in today's day.

David Wedekind: I think it really does start with actively listening to the customer, and getting a better understanding of what types of problems they're trying to solve for. Each shipper is highly unique. They have similar profiles, they might be in the same vertical, but they all have unique challenges, whether they're network, whether they're carriers they work with, internal stakeholders who have their own priorities.

And I think it really starts with actively listening to the customer and trying to understand ways that I can bring in my product, the service we offer, and truly tailor that to solve that customer's challenges. And I think when you get close to the customer and you get a better understanding of really what makes them tick, how they're measured, what are their goals, right? You can truly take the offering that I'm able to provide to the market and tailor it to each client's needs. And I think clients appreciate that, taking more of a consultative approach.

And often, the results are a lot stronger than if you come in with a box and say, my box is going to be better than the current box you have, without truly trying to understand where there are the pain points, what are the goals and objectives and ultimately building a solution for each client.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: You maintain about 17 years in the transportation and logistics industry. How have you seen this industry evolve over time, and what trends are you seeing ahead going forward?

David Wedekind: Companies are looking for strategic partners. I think one thing I've appreciated, especially about the freight audit and payment industry, is that, historically, it was a very tactical space. It was, we're going to provide basically back-office AP solutions. And it solved a problem, but it wasn't very strategic. And I've certainly appreciated the evolution in the space to be much more data-intensive, to be embedded within client systems as well as your external trading partners.

And being a resource to really help guide a customer to ongoing continuous improvements, cost savings, visibility to supplier performance, improved visibility internally for stakeholders in finance, in accounting.

And distribution taking a lot of what was a very tactical process and making it much more strategic and enhanced.

I think additionally, where I see this space evolving is, there's a lot of new technical innovation, certainly artificial intelligence. And I think most companies are focusing on running leaner, and so they're really looking for partners in this space who can one, address some of the technical improvements that are being required by corporate leadership. Leveraging artificial intelligence, leveraging things like machine learning and generative AI.

And then two, having a resource that can truly evolve with the business as the business grows, as they're going into different markets, as maybe they're distributing products different ways. You think about ship from store and pick up from store, it's not just fulfillment from distribution centers. You really need a transportation partner or intermediary, who can understand what each customer's trying to do. And then introduce technology, and then have the experience to help them leverage it the best way possible.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: The Top Transportation Innovators category recognizes professionals in the transportation space. What advice do you have for the transportation professionals in the supply chain space?

David Wedekind: I think you have to continue to learn. I know everybody says that, but if you're really not focused on developing yourself, you'll fall behind very quickly. I was very fortunate when I got started that I had senior leadership and mentors around me who really spent time with me and helped me understand the things I needed to do to be successful, and challenged me.

And so I think beyond just learning, you really need to try to grow your network and to engage with others in the space that will challenge you both personally and professionally to improve and to try to gain the skills that you need so that you can really accelerate in your career. I've gotten a lot of opportunities across delivery roles and leadership positions and positions where I was growing a solution from basically bare bones to a market-viable product, and those opportunities, you have to take advantage of those as well. And so, when you do have the chance to maybe do something a little bit differently, it will only help you. And I think in my current role, being in a sales position, having that experience certainly helps elevate me with respect to who I'm talking to, and just having a deeper domain expertise than someone who's just trying to push a product or a service, if you will.

Supply & Demand Chain Executive: And what is something that we haven't addressed so far that would be pertinent for our readers? Like, what's a good takeaway?

David Wedekind: Talking about investing in yourself is certainly one of them. Find an organization that will help challenge you and develop you. I've been very fortunate to work at a couple different companies who truly were leaders in their space, and being around people who have done it before and care about not only the outcomes that the business provides, but the people who make that possible is really important in trying to find a company that will help develop you so that you can do as well as you can.

I think there's a lot of different companies out there, whether you work for a carrier, you work for a consulting firm, or a software provider, or a shipper. Take advantage of what that might look like. Get exposure to different businesses, and truly try to differentiate yourself by learning and investing in your own success. I think, ultimately, we're all trying to be successful, but if you don't invest in yourself, it's very difficult to make it happen.