Women in Procurement Wednesdays: Melissa Hendrick on remote work, the P2P vendor arena and becoming a subject matter expert

Starting a new position during a global pandemic isn’t necessarily ideal. After all, how do you connect with your new colleagues and learn the ropes of the organization — all remotely? Luckily enough, Melissa Hendrick had some experience that set her up for success.

Early on in 2020, Hendrick had to pivot quickly in a role at the start of the Covid crisis. She learned to bond with colleagues virtually with a new-found dependence on Zoom meetings. Luckily, she was able to translate that experience and her leadership skills to her current role as the Executive Vice President of Marketing at Lockstep, a B2B accounting technology provider.

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Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Hendrick and the entire Lockstep organization work 100% remotely. Without her initial experience, Hendrick realizes that it “would have been very hard to adjust. Everybody in the workplace has had to find a new way to continue on with business even though we are not face to face.”

In terms of how the pandemic has affected her world of work, Hendrick admits there are pros and cons. As a marketer, before the pandemic, her teams thrived on working and brainstorming in person.

“Learning how to work remote and keeping the team motivated had its challenges,” Hendrick said. However, “how amazing is it to be presented with this opportunity to learn new things about how to manage in a remote world completely?”

Hendrick’s silver lining of the pandemic mirrors her attitude and determination to constantly learn and continue to evolve. She recognizes that she has been very blessed in her life. Her first work experience after graduating high school led to her putting herself through college while working as a marketing assistant in downtown Dallas.

“What really put my career into overdrive is, because I had those years of business experience combined with a marketing degree in business, my career just took off,” Hendrick said.

When it comes to the path of her career, Hendrick first focused her energy on working for large organizations. She wanted to “learn best practices and glean a much broader area of experience,” she said. While these larger organizations taught her a lot of great things, they also showed her that her true passion was working in marketing roles for smaller, high-growth, emerging companies. She loved being able to help those B2B companies move toward success.

But how did Hendrick first find her way into the procurement industry?

When she was approached by the AP automation specialists at Yooz to lead its North American operations, Hendrick was shocked to see that the whole procure-to-pay (or P2P) side of businesses was one of the last areas that companies were considering automating. She couldn’t believe that the systems that handle an organization’s money were left to operate in such an inefficient and manual way. Plus, she loved having a job where “you looked forward to getting up every day because you have so many things to do and you can actually see the results you are having from your marketing efforts,” she said.

As a marketer working specifically in the procurement industry, Hendrick is excited about a number of things for the present and the future. The opportunity at Yooz allowed her to help disrupt the North American market with a focus on mid-market CFOs and their pain points around the benefits of automating P2P. Now and in the future, she said it’s important and necessary to help C-suite financial leaders and their teams to replace inefficient processes with automation — freeing them up to do more value-added, strategic initiatives that truly add to the ROI of the company.

Even more into the future, Hendrick foresees there being a lot of consolidation in the P2P vendor arena. She doesn’t believe there will be standalone accounts payable or accounts receivable platforms any longer, but instead a single source solution with rich reporting and analytics — what Hendrick refers to as “connected accounting.”

As a woman working specifically in the procurement industry, Hendrick understands that the C-suite level tends to still be very male-dominated. She does see that changing and becoming more all-inclusive at a quicker pace than she would have expected.

When it comes to what advice she has for women in the field, Hendrick recommends that they connect with industry groups that represent the P2P space. They should build networks with leaders and subject matter experts — in addition to becoming a fintech subject matter expert in their own right. That is the way to build your brand and visibility, and to speak on behalf of yourself when you have the opportunity.

More broadly, for anyone working as a leader in the field of procurement, Hendrick notes some short-and-sweet advice that, she admits, took her a long time to learn.

“How much fun is it to be at the top of the mountain by yourself with nobody to celebrate with?” she asked. “It’s motivating your teams. It’s leading by example, serving by example … Be the first one, as a leader regardless, to fall on the sword. Everybody is going to make mistakes,” she said. “And, be the last one to take credit.”

Hendrick readily admits that she is also working to prepare the next generation of marketers to move up and replace her one day.

After all, if “the next evolution is going to be in automation around cash flow management” with progress that “leapfrogs” to the point of global connected accounting, it’s important for women and men alike to put themselves out there and become innovators in the space.

Read about other professionals featured in our “Women in Procurement Wednesdays” series.