SMB Account Executive

About Us

Great Place To Work® is the global authority on workplace culture. Our mission is to help every place become a Great Place To Work® for all. We give leaders and organizations the recognition and tools to create a consistently and overwhelmingly positive employee experience, fostering cultures that are proven to drive business, improve lives, and better society.

Our recognition is the most coveted and respected in the world for elevating employer brands to attract the right people. Our proprietary methodology and platform enable organizations to truly capture, analyze, and understand the experience of all employees. Our groundbreaking research empowers organizations to build cultures that retain talent and unlock the potential of every employee. Our coaches, content, and community connect the boldest leaders, ideas, and innovations in employee experience. Since 1992, our Certification™, Best Workplaces™ Lists, and global benchmarks have become the industry standard, built on data from more than 100 million employees in 150 countries around the world.

In 2021, Great Place To Work® was acquired by UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group.) As a leading global provider of HCM, payroll, HR service delivery, and workforce management solutions, UKG believes organizations succeed when they focus on their people. While Great Place To Work® will continue operating independently within the UKG family, our research and insights will help UKG differentiate its best-in-class HR, talent, and workforce management technology, and together we'll support every workplace to become great. UKG has 15,000 employees around the globe and is known for its inclusive and supportive workplace culture and best-in-class rewards and benefits.

Both UKG and Great Place To Work® are leading the change on what it means to be a Great Place To Work® for all, and we are proud to be Certified™ great workplaces!

About the Position

The SMB Account Executive reports directly to the Director, Sales.

Own the territory. Build the case. Close with value.

You’re not waiting for a lead list to make your quarter. You’re a hunter who owns a defined SMB territory, builds pipeline, and closes value-based deals from $25K to $50K ACV in a higher-velocity sales motion. You research the right accounts, create entry points through direct outreach, and turn business problems into a case for action. You’ll work across HR, People, Finance, and executive stakeholders, run disciplined sales cycles, and protect price by connecting our solutions to measurable business outcomes. This role rewards sellers who balance speed with rigor, qualify hard, and stay in control of their territory and forecast.

You’ll manage multiple active opportunities at different stages, move decisively from discovery through close, and keep enough qualified pipeline to deliver consistent monthly and quarterly results. Speed matters, but not at the expense of qualification, value, or price discipline. This role requires travel of up to 10%.

Key Responsibilities

Hunt and Build Pipeline

• Prospect into the right SMB accounts. Use research, market signals, referrals, cold calling, email, and social outreach to create qualified opportunities within your territory.
• Build the majority of your own pipeline. Partner with marketing and SDR resources when available, but own the strategy, messaging, and consistency it takes to create enough coverage.
• Manage your territory like a business. Segment accounts by fit, business need, and revenue potential. Know where your time is going and why.
• Own your forecast. Keep opportunities current, call risk early, and make commitments grounded in buyer evidence rather than optimism.

Run Value-Based Sales Cycles

• Lead discovery around business impact. Surface the customer’s real challenge, such as retention, hiring competitiveness, leadership effectiveness, engagement, or culture risk, and quantify why it matters now.
• Build a business case, not a feature tour. Connect the customer’s priorities and metrics to a clear path forward and a defensible $25K to $50K investment.
• Multi-thread every meaningful opportunity. Build relationships across HR or People leadership, Finance, and executive sponsors rather than relying on one champion.
• Hold price through value. Use scope, outcomes, and mutual action plans to address objections. Discounting is a deliberate exception, not the default closing strategy.
• Drive velocity from first conversation to signature. Manage next steps, stakeholder alignment, proposals, negotiation, and internal coordination with urgency, without skipping the qualification and value work that protects deal quality.

Stay Data-Driven

• Use the CRM like it matters. Keep stages, close dates, next steps, stakeholder maps, deal value, and risk accurate so the business can trust the forecast.
• Inspect your own conversion. Understand which accounts, messages, and activities create meetings, qualified pipeline, proposals, and closed revenue, then adjust your approach.
• Report on the metrics that matter. Bring a clear view of pipeline health, forecast accuracy, deal movement, self-sourced pipeline, ACV, and leading indicators to weekly reviews.
• Bring market intelligence back to the business. Share patterns in buyer needs, competitive pressure, packaging, pricing, and objections that can improve the broader go-to-market motion.

Required Qualifications

Track Record

• 3+ years of outbound B2B SaaS sales experience. You’ve carried a new-business quota and can show consistent performance against it.
• Closed deals in the $25K to $50K range. Your experience includes sales cycles measured in weeks, multiple stakeholders, and a business case that supported the investment.
• Self-generated pipeline. You can explain your outbound strategy, your best-performing plays, and how you decide which accounts deserve attention.
• Owned a defined territory or book of business. You know how to segment, prioritize, and build a practical account plan rather than simply work a list.
• Disciplined qualification. You can describe opportunities you chose not to pursue, the evidence behind that decision, and how you redirected your time.
• Sold through value. You’re comfortable using customer-provided numbers to build and defend a business case.

Skills

• Commercial judgment. You focus on accounts that can buy, problems worth solving, and evidence that a deal can move.
• Territory strategy. You think beyond this week’s activity and continuously build and replenish pipeline to protect both monthly pace and the quarter.
• Project management. You track the timelines, stakeholder actions, dependencies, and next steps that keep deals moving.
• Data fluency. You translate customer metrics into value and use your own funnel data to improve performance.
• Communication across levels. You engage operators, HR leaders, Finance, and executives in language that makes sense to each audience.
• Grit and adaptability. You stay consistent through quiet weeks, setbacks, changing priorities, and evolving go-to-market motions.
• Curiosity. You want to understand how a customer’s organization works, ask strong questions, and listen closely to the answers.

Preferred Qualifications

You’re the kind of person who:

• Leads with low ego and a growth mindset. You learn from losses, seek feedback, and apply coaching quickly.
• Creates clarity in ambiguity. You don’t need a perfect playbook before acting. You test, learn, and improve while staying accountable to outcomes.
• Collaborates across difference. You work well with marketing, solutions, customer success, finance, legal, and product partners who bring different perspectives.
• Commits to equity in how you work. You approach customers and colleagues with fairness, curiosity, and respect, and you build trust across different needs and contexts.
• Protects the long-term relationship. You’d rather win the right deal at the right value than force a transaction that won’t deliver for the customer.
• Thrives in growth and change. You’re energized by building a stronger SMB motion and helping shape what great looks like as the business evolves.

What We Offer

• Real territory ownership. A defined book, clear expectations, and responsibility for turning strategy into revenue.
• A meaningful market and mission. Help organizations strengthen workplace culture through measurement, insight, and action.
• Support without dependency. Work with cross-functional partners and sales leadership while staying accountable for creating and advancing your own pipeline.
• Coaching that improves the craft. Expect direct feedback on territory strategy, discovery, deal qualification, value creation, and forecast discipline.
• Compensation that rewards performance. Base salary plus uncapped commission tied to quota attainment.
• The infrastructure to execute. Access to CRM, enablement, internal expertise, and deal support to help move qualified opportunities forward.

If this sounds like a role where you can own a territory, create demand, and close with value, apply with your resume and a cover letter on why you’re interested. In it, tell us about a $25K to $50K deal you sourced and closed, including how you built the business case and protected the value of the solution.

Own the territory. Build the pipeline. Win on value.

All job descriptions are written to accurately reflect the open job and include general work responsibilities. They do not present a comprehensive, detailed inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required for the job. Management reserves the right to revise the job or require that other or different tasks be performed if or when circumstances change.

The base salary range for this position is $85,000 to $90,000 annually, with the opportunity to significantly increase total earnings through a performance-based incentive compensation plan. The plan may provide for the payment of commissions and restricted stock unit awards as part of total compensation. The base pay offered may vary depending on skills, experience, job-related knowledge, and work location. Learn more about our benefits and rewards at https://www.ukg.com/about-us/careers/benefits

Benefits

Here, we know that you’re more than your work. That’s why our benefits help you thrive personally and professionally, from wellness programs and tuition reimbursement to U Choose — a customizable expense reimbursement program that can be used for more than 200+ needs that best suit you and your family, from student loan repayment, to childcare, to pet insurance. Our inclusive culture, active and engaged employee resource groups, and caring leaders value every voice and support you in doing the best work of your career. Information about our comprehensive benefits can be reviewed on the careers site at https://www.ukg.com/careers.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Great Place To Work is an equal opportunity employer. We aim to create and foster a Great Place To Work For All. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, disability, religion, sex, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, and other legally protected categories.

View The EEO Know Your Rights poster

Great Place To Work/UKG participates in E-Verify. View the E-Verify posters here.

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Disability Accommodation in the Application and Interview Process

For individuals with disabilities that need additional assistance at any point in the application and interview process, please email [email protected].