Built for Logistics Account Executives

The CRM freight AEs run shipper RFPs and rate-cons in.

A 3PL or freight brokerage AE lives in two shipper RFP seasons a year, hundreds of lane bids per week, rate-con negotiations that run in Teams chat, and a DOT audit horizon that can appear with 30 days notice. The CRM has to hold the RFP, the lane matrix, the carrier compliance file, the signed rate-con, and the implementation handoff on one record.

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Why buyers are here

Logistics Account Executives: the daily pains.

A freight brokerage AE job runs on a different clock than a software AE job. Shipper RFPs land twice a year with 40 to 400 lanes and a two-week clock. In between, rate-cons move hourly in email and Teams chats on spot loads. The carrier side carries DOT audit exposure that reaches back three years, so compliance has to be clean on every carrier before the first load. Rate negotiations happen three times per load (shipper quote, carrier buy, carrier re-rate when capacity shifts). Most CRMs sell to a SaaS AE buyer and most TMS platforms sell to the ops side. The person left out of both pitches is the freight AE running the shipper account. The six pains below show up on every logistics AE buyer call we run.

RFP season every six months

The RFP packet is 400 lanes with a two-week clock.

A Fortune 500 shipper runs an RFP every spring and fall and the packet lands in an email attachment with 40 to 400 lanes, 90-day historical data, award criteria, and a two-week submission window. The AE lives in Excel for the response, pastes together carrier capacity data from the TMS, and prays the roll-up formula does not break on submit. Strkr pulls the RFP matrix into a native line-item structure on the shipper opportunity with historical rate data, carrier capacity signal, and bid rate per lane. The chief estimator and the AE collaborate on the record instead of three Excel files.

Lane bid matrix sprawl

Every bid is 400 lines and nothing fits native.

A shipper lane bid is not a single ACV line. It is 40 to 400 lane rows each with origin, destination, equipment, mileage, historical rate, target margin, and bid rate. Salesforce Opportunity line items were built for SaaS seats, not a lane-level bid matrix with equipment and mileage math. Strkr Products module ships lane-level quoting with equipment type lookup, mileage calculation, carrier capacity signal, and margin math on every row.

Rate-con negotiation lives in chat

The signed rate-con PDF is in a Teams DM.

A spot load gets a rate-con quoted at 2 PM, the carrier dispatcher counters at 2:40 PM in a Teams DM, the AE lands on a final number at 2:55, and the signed rate-con PDF comes back by email at 4 PM. The record of the negotiation lives in three tools and the AE reconstructs it by Thursday for the week-in-review. Strkr threads DocuSign and PandaDoc as native integrations so the rate-con drafts from the deal record, the signature lands back on the deal, and the stage auto-bumps to Covered without a copy-paste from a Teams window.

Carrier compliance on every record

The carrier compliance file is in a different platform.

Every carrier the AE books carries authority, insurance, CSA scores, and safety ratings that have to clear thresholds before the load dispatches. The compliance tool lives in MyCarrier or RMIS in a separate browser tab and the AE finds out the insurance expired yesterday when the carrier calls at pickup. Strkr custom objects for Carrier Compliance surface authority, insurance expiration, CSA scores, and audit flags on the carrier record the AE already lives on.

DOT audit prep ambush

The DOT audit lands with 30 days notice.

A DOT audit notification arrives on a Tuesday with a 30-day response window. The compliance team pulls three years of carrier records, insurance docs, and rate-con artifacts from six systems. The AE loses two weeks helping. Strkr holds every carrier compliance record, rate-con, and load artifact on the opportunity and account records with version history, so audit prep is a saved view and a filter instead of an archaeology project.

TMS lives in a different browser tab

I toggle between a CRM and a TMS all day.

The AE lives in the CRM for the shipper pipeline. The ops side lives in the TMS for load booking, carrier assignment, and billing. The AE sees two halves of a deal from two different tools and reconstructs the full margin story on Friday. Strkr ships native integrations with McLeod, Alvys, MercuryGate, Rose Rocket, MyCarrier, and ITS Dispatch, so the load, carrier assignment, realized margin, and on-time delivery all surface on the opportunity record the AE already lives on.

How Strkr fits the freight AE day

The primitives logistics AEs actually use.

Strkr for logistics AEs is the same CRM every rep at the brokerage runs, with role-aware views shaped around the shipper RFP, rate-con, and carrier compliance motion. The primitives line up with what a freight brokerage AE repeats on every deal: intake a shipper RFP, build the lane bid matrix, negotiate rate-cons on spot loads, run the carrier compliance check, send the rate-con for signature, and hand off awarded contracts to the implementation team without a 40-field spreadsheet retype.

Shipper pipeline board

Pipeline grouped by RFP, equipment, and vertical.

Column-per-stage board grouped by shipper, lane corridor, equipment type, vertical, or expected award month. Drag a shipper opportunity between stages (RFP received, bid in progress, awarded, implementation, running) and the flow enforces entry criteria like lane set defined, carrier capacity confirmed, rate confidence noted. The AE builds a view that matches the week without a RevOps ticket.

Shipper RFP record

One record holds the whole lane bid.

The opportunity record pulls in the shipper, the end-user, the lane bid matrix, the historical rate data, the carrier capacity signal, the target margin, and the submitted bid. A role-aware sidebar renders shipper fields for the AE, costing fields for the pricing team, and compliance fields for the carrier side on the same record without a tab switch.

Products + lane matrix

Line-item quoting with real lane bid support.

The native Products module handles 40 to 400 lane line items on a single bid with origin, destination, equipment type, mileage, unit rate, markup, and extended margin on every row. Group lines into lane corridors, equipment types, or vertical pods. The bid PDF renders a clean shipper-facing document and the margin sheet renders for internal review.

Carrier Compliance object

A native custom object for the compliance file.

Strkr custom objects give every tenant a native Carrier Compliance object with fields for authority status, insurance expiration, CSA scores, safety rating, W-9 status, and audit-ready flag. Lookup fields on loads, rate-cons, and deals pull from the master. The AE never dispatches a load against a carrier whose insurance expired yesterday.

DocuSign + PandaDoc

Rate-cons, MSAs, and shipper agreements ship from the deal.

Both DocuSign and PandaDoc are native integrations. Draft the rate-con from the load on the deal, send to the carrier dispatcher, and the signed PDF returns to the deal with the stage auto-bumping to Covered. The same signature pipeline covers shipper MSAs, broker-carrier agreements, and NDA packages so the AE never juggles three signature portals.

TMS integration

McLeod, Alvys, MercuryGate, Rose Rocket, ITS native.

Strkr ships native TMS connectors so the load, carrier assignment, margin, and on-time delivery surface on the opportunity record the AE already lives on. The reconciliation Friday afternoon between the pipeline and the booked load volume takes 15 minutes instead of three hours of spreadsheet math.

Email + mobile

Native sync and offline capture on the dock.

Native Outlook and Gmail sync lands every shipper RFP, carrier dispatcher reply, and rate-con thread on the deal timeline. Strkr mobile is first-class with offline capture, so the AE walks a shipper facility, logs voice notes against the opportunity, snaps a photo of a dock door constraint, and the record syncs back when the signal returns.

Strkr Messaging on the carrier side

SMS to the carrier dispatcher from the record.

Carrier dispatchers live on SMS, not email. Strkr Messaging ships a native SMS lane that the AE uses from the opportunity record for pickup confirmations, driver updates, and rate-con reminders. Every message threads to the deal timeline and the audit record stays intact without a side-channel in a personal phone.

From awarded contract to the first load

Rate-cons, implementation, and ERP handoff.

The handoff from an awarded shipper contract to the first running load is where most freight CRMs quietly stop. The AE wins the award, the TMS absorbs the data in a nightly CSV import, and the CRM record goes dormant. Strkr threads DocuSign and PandaDoc for rate-con and MSA signatures, fires a flow on signature return that pushes the award into the TMS, and spins up a Projects workspace that surfaces implementation milestones on the shipper account.

Rate-con signature flow

Signed rate-con bumps stage and fires TMS push.

When DocuSign or PandaDoc returns the signed rate-con, the flow stores the artifact on the deal, flips the stage to Covered, pushes the load header into the TMS, pings the carrier compliance team for a last-mile check, and pings the operations desk for dispatch. The AE moves on to the next bid without a 20-minute handoff email.

TMS sync

Load headers and lane rates push on award.

Strkr ships TMS connectors for the freight stack (McLeod, Alvys, MercuryGate, Rose Rocket, MyCarrier, ITS Dispatch) and a webhook pattern for the rest. On rate-con signature, load headers, lane references, pricing, carrier assignments, and ship-to details push to the TMS in one call. The AE never retypes a lane bid into the TMS load entry screen.

Implementation project

A Strkr Projects workspace spins up on award.

At Awarded, a Strkr Projects workspace spins up with milestones for EDI setup, tracking integration, invoicing cadence, insurance certificate exchange, and first-load scheduling. The AE sees implementation status on the shipper account without opening a second platform. The customer-service team updates implementation progress against the same project and the AE answers the status call in 30 seconds.

Carrier onboarding

New carrier onboarding runs through the compliance flow.

For awards that require new carrier capacity, the onboarding flow runs through authority verification, insurance certificate collection, broker-carrier agreement signature via DocuSign, and the compliance threshold check. The carrier record lands in the compliance master on first clean onboarding and the AE sees carrier availability on day one of the award running.

Service recovery

Capacity crunch triggers escalation on the record.

When a load fails to cover within the configured window or a carrier no-shows, a flow fires on the opportunity, routes the escalation to the AE and the shipper operations contact, drafts a Strkr Messaging SMS to the carrier dispatcher, and logs the service event on the account for the quarterly business review.

Change orders

Mid-contract rate adjustments stay on the record.

Rate adjustments happen. A shipper negotiates a mid-contract fuel surcharge update, a carrier re-rates after a capacity shift, a lane gets added to the award. Strkr handles rate changes as versioned amendments on the original award and rate-con, with the TMS sync picking up the delta on signature return. The AE and the ops side work from one timeline instead of three email threads.

Flows for the freight AE motion

Automations across RFP, bid, rate-con, and compliance.

The best freight brokerage AEs automate the administrative work between RFP intake and rate-con signature and spend their hours on the three accounts where judgment matters most. Strkr Flows cover the automations every logistics AE should run as native triggers with no webhook plumbing. The pattern below shows up in week two of every deployment and compounds into cleaner lane bid discipline, carrier compliance posture, and shipper handoff.

RFP intake

Inbound RFP email creates the opportunity.

An inbound shipper RFP email with a lane list attached hits the brokerage inbox. A flow parses the sender, pulls the lane set, creates the opportunity on the shipper account, attaches the RFP file, assigns the AE by lane and vertical rules, and schedules a 24-hour acknowledgment task. The AE never loses a bid request to an overflowing inbox or an out-of-office window.

Lane matrix ready

BOM-level lane matrix complete kicks off pricing review.

When the AE marks the lane matrix as complete, the flow routes the deal to the pricing queue, pings the assigned pricing analyst, and sets a 48-hour SLA on the margin review. The bid surfaces on a pricing-team saved view with time-in-queue visibility. Nothing sits in a pricing backlog without the AE and the pricing lead seeing it on the same board.

Margin threshold

Low-margin bids route to approval.

A flow reads every bid on save. If the extended margin on the bid falls below the tenant-level threshold or the shipper-size override, the bid routes to the sales manager or VP of Sales for discount approval. The approval lands in-app with the full lane matrix, the pricing worksheet, and the margin breakdown so the manager approves on real context instead of a Slack ping.

Carrier compliance expiry

Insurance 30 days out, authority 7 days out.

A flow reads every active carrier record daily and fires a notification 30 days before insurance expiration, 7 days before authority re-filing deadlines, and the moment a CSA score crosses the broker threshold. The AE acts on the signal before the load dispatches instead of catching the gap at the DOT audit.

Capacity tightening digest

Monday 6 AM, the three lanes going tight.

Monday 6 AM email to each AE: the three lanes on the book trending tight in the next five business days with recommended pre-book count. The AE walks into Monday calls already knowing which lanes need carrier commitments and which lanes can run spot through the week.

Rate drift alert

Quoted rate aging past the stale window.

A flow reads every open quote against the lane rate signal and fires an alert when the quoted rate ages past the stale threshold. The AE sees the alert with the specific lane and the delta and re-quotes before the shipper calls back. Margin leaks on stale quotes drop measurably in week two.

Awarded contract handoff

Awarded stage spins up the implementation project.

At Awarded, the flow spins up a Strkr Projects workspace, maps lane assignments to the TMS, pings the ops dispatcher, and sets the first-load scheduling milestone. The AE sees implementation live without opening a second platform and the ops side sees the sales context without opening the CRM.

DOT audit prep

Audit notification spins up the pull list.

When a DOT audit notification lands on the compliance inbox, a flow spins up the audit pull list across every carrier record touched in the audit window, every rate-con signed, and every load dispatched. The AE and the compliance team pull the full packet in an afternoon instead of three weeks of reconstruction.

Head-to-head

Strkr for freight AEs vs the Salesforce plus McLeod plus Excel stack.

A typical mid-market 3PL AE stack runs Salesforce or HubSpot for the shipper pipeline, McLeod or Alvys for the TMS, Excel or Smartsheet for the lane bid matrix, MyCarrier or RMIS for carrier compliance, DocuSign for the rate-con, and a shared email inbox for carrier capacity threads. Strkr collapses most of that into one workspace with one bill, one admin surface, and one record of truth per deal.

What matters Strkr Salesforce + McLeod + Excel + compliance tool
Tools a freight AE opens daily 1 (Strkr) 5 to 8 (CRM, TMS, Excel bid sheet, compliance tool, DocuSign, inbox, chat)
Lane bid matrix on opportunities Native Products module with equipment lookup and margin math Excel file emailed back and forth across three team members
Carrier Compliance custom object Native custom object with authority, insurance, CSA, audit flags Separate compliance tool, no CRM visibility
Rate-con signature DocuSign and PandaDoc native, Flows on signature return Signature tool with manual CRM sync, no stage-bump automation
TMS integration Native connectors for McLeod, Alvys, MercuryGate, Rose Rocket, MyCarrier, ITS CSV export, custom webhook project, delayed sync
Carrier dispatcher SMS Native Strkr Messaging on the opportunity record Personal phone text, no audit trail
DOT audit prep Saved view and filter across carrier, rate-con, load artifacts Three-week reconstruction project across six systems
Implementation tracking post-award Strkr Projects workspace with implementation milestones on the account TMS in a second browser tab, no sales-side visibility
Rate drift alerts Native Strkr AI flag per aging quote with specific reason AE remembers to re-check, or does not
Change orders mid-contract Versioned amendments with TMS delta sync Email thread, manual TMS edit, risk of a missed delta
Admin changes to the pipeline Self-serve for AE and sales manager inside the permission matrix Salesforce admin review queue, 2-week freeze for a new field
Monthly cost per AE (full stack) One per-seat line, see pricing page Four to six per-seat lines stacked across tools

See the CRM freight AEs run shipper RFPs and rate-cons in.

Start a trial with the full logistics AE stack enabled: shipper pipeline, lane bid matrix on the Products module, Carrier Compliance custom objects, DocuSign and PandaDoc for rate-cons and MSAs, native TMS connectors, Strkr Projects for implementation tracking, Strkr Messaging on the carrier dispatcher SMS lane, and Flows for every stage from RFP intake to Awarded. One bill, one workspace, one record of truth per deal.

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Common questions

Logistics Account Executives buyer FAQ.

Can Strkr handle a 400-lane shipper RFP matrix on a single opportunity?

Yes. The Strkr Products module supports line-item quoting with no practical cap on the row count. Freight AEs regularly build bids with 300 to 500 lane lines across origin, destination, equipment type, mileage, historical rate, target margin, and bid rate. Lines group into lane corridors and equipment types for a clean shipper-facing PDF, and the margin sheet renders a full internal view with unit rate, markup, and extended margin per lane. The chief estimator and the AE collaborate on the opportunity record instead of three Excel files emailed back and forth across a two-week submission window.

How does Strkr handle carrier compliance on every deal?

Carrier Compliance ships as a native custom object. The admin configures fields for FMCSA authority status, insurance expiration date, CSA scores (unsafe driving, hours of service, driver fitness, controlled substances, vehicle maintenance, hazmat), safety rating, W-9 status, broker-carrier agreement effective date, and audit-ready flag. Lookup fields on loads, rate-cons, and deals pull from the carrier master. Flows fire 30 days before insurance expiration, 7 days before authority re-filing deadlines, and the moment a CSA score crosses the broker threshold. The AE never dispatches a load against a carrier whose insurance lapsed overnight.

How does the rate-con signature workflow work?

Both DocuSign and PandaDoc ship as native integrations. Draft the rate-con from the load on the deal record, route internally for pricing approval if the margin falls below threshold, send to the carrier dispatcher, and the signed PDF returns to the deal with the stage auto-bumping to Covered. The same signature pipeline covers shipper MSAs, broker-carrier agreements, insurance certificate requests, and change orders. Signature events fire Strkr Flows so the TMS push, the ops dispatch ping, the compliance last-mile check, and the carrier instructions email all run in parallel the moment the rate-con returns.

How does the TMS handoff work on an awarded contract?

Strkr ships native connectors for McLeod, Alvys, MercuryGate, Rose Rocket, MyCarrier, and ITS Dispatch, plus a webhook pattern for the long tail of mid-market TMS platforms. On rate-con signature return, a flow pushes the load header, lane references, pricing, carrier assignment, insurance certificate, and ship-to details to the TMS in one call. The AE never retypes a lane bid into the TMS load entry screen. Change orders push as deltas against the original load so the TMS record stays current through rate adjustments and lane additions.

What does Strkr do during DOT audit prep?

When a DOT audit notification lands, Strkr spins up the audit pull list across every carrier record touched in the audit window, every rate-con signed, every load dispatched, and every insurance certificate on file. The compliance team runs the audit response as a saved view and filter instead of a three-week reconstruction project across six systems. Every record carries version history, so the state of the carrier compliance file on the day of a specific load dispatch is retrievable without a backup restore. The audit response packet exports as a clean PDF with artifact links intact.

How does Strkr Messaging handle the carrier dispatcher SMS lane?

Carrier dispatchers live on SMS, not email. Strkr Messaging ships a native SMS lane that the AE uses directly from the opportunity record for pickup confirmations, driver updates, rate-con reminders, and in-transit status requests. Every message threads to the deal timeline, which means the audit record stays intact without a side-channel in a personal phone. Templates speed up repetitive sends. Opt-out and compliance posture ship by default. The AE never juggles a personal phone text thread with 40 drivers.

Also considering

Related combinations.

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