Account Executive - Recruitment Marketing

A Universal Truth

Even under the best of circumstances, looking for a new job can be exhausting. On this, can we agree? It's the same for employers, really. Even something as seemingly simple as deciding what to write in a job description can be daunting, let alone craft, activate and market your employer brand reputation. 

Why We Exist

Fortunately, that's the kind of thing for which we exist.  GBS is the go-to end-to-end talent attraction strategy, marketing and communications agency. We come up with brilliant strategies to solve real-world talent needs for companies around the world. Seriously, our work can be found on pretty much every continent on the planet (well, maybe not Antarctica... yet).  We help employers with employer brand identity development, messaging, content development, social media marketing, internal marketing to employees and external candidate experience, and more! In fact, we help employers not just attract talent but communicate with them across the entire employee lifecycle. Here's a handy diagram to help visualize it. 

And Now For Something Completely Different 

We always tell our clients to lead with the job. We're going to immediately ignore our own advice. We'd rather talk about fit. When thinking about you, please know we first think about who you are as a person - not just the role we need you to fill. While GBS may be Worldwide (see what we did there?), we are a third-stage growth start-up. That means each person we bring into our team matters... a lot. "Fit" counts for both of us. The kind of person that fits with us is relentless:  working in a start-up is hard for a few reasons. First, there's less structure, so more to "figure out as we go; requiring relentless agility. There are fewer people, which heightens the importance of collaboration and requires relentless grace with each other.  Our industry also requires relentlessness. Truth be known, HR and Talent Acquisition departments are not typically the groups that get the fast, fat budget, requiring relentless patience and persistence to help prospective clients make business cases to get things done. 

We firmly believe culture and work fit are not just buzzwords. It's important you understand how we work to know whether or not you can thrive with us.  Here's our set-up and what it means for you, bullet-style: 

• We are a remote organization. Even after COVID lockdowns and two years of Zoom calls, that's still harder than it may sound if you're not used to it. Self-direction is critical to success, particularly in our group, where leadership truly trusts each person to self-manage. 

• We communicate directly - both in style and in person.  The "no-assholes" rule applies. Direct communication does not give anyone license to be a jerk. When there are issues, we work it out directly: with a small team, there's not room for a bunch of arbiters and middle-people. 

• We make decisions about the company direction as a team. The buck may stop with our CEO, but the dollars that we bring in are made by all of us. So the decisions that affect us all are made by all of us, too. This is typically done at monthly meetings, but sometimes via group messaging. 

• We insist on balance. There will be days when we have to work long hours to get something done and out the door. We do it because that's who we are and what we've committed to our clients. But we don't just live to work here. So to maintain life balance, we have adopted a 4-day workweek, rotating Mondays and Fridays "off" (barring true client emergencies, generally handled by the Exec team). This gives the team a couple of 4-day weekends a month to pursue passions and interests outside of work. There isn't a set, limited number of vacation days or sick days - we trust our team members to get the work done and ask for help when needed. 

• We can't always get what we want, but we do have what we need.  This isn't the company with off-the-chain spending accounts or every tool in the sun. You'll have a laptop, you'll have a phone, and access to the platforms we use to get jobs done (such as Airtable, Microsoft Office, Adobe). Our Operations Coordinator helps with client gifts and L&D requests (we want you to learn, but we are a start-up, so we can't send you to Cambridge). The team also attends AdWorld and select industry conferences each year to learn, not sell. Like most start-ups (maybe all?) the health benefits we could find were pretty expensive and not awesome, so we chose to go with a QSEHRA plan (something else our Ops Coordinator can discuss with you before you join the team). 

• We don't take advantage. In a macro-managed company or client relationship, it could be easy to take advantage. We don't; it's not who we are. We're hard-wired to help and do more. Sometimes that means there's scope creep. Sometimes it's a late-night or early morning meeting. Sometimes it's delivering hard news or pointing out that things need to be done differently. And when those situations arise, we take them... and the opportunity to grow or help our clients grow (even when it's complicated). 

So that may make us sound like saints. We're not. We have our off-days and make our fair share of mistakes. When we do, we own them and try again for the goal. And we do our fair share of winning, too.  Our work is award-winning. We're ridiculously creative. And we hope you are, too - because that's what it takes to be successful in a start-up. We also like travel, family time and time at the beach: which we make sure our team gets to take part in each year at our planning summits. So it'd help if you were into those things, too (but it's not required). That's who we are. Now it's up to you to decide if we fit what you need in an organization.  If you think we do, read on! 

Let's Talk About the Role

We're hiring an Account Executive to find business opportunities and manage customer relationships. We need this person to have experience in either recruiting, HR Tech, or agency marketing sales/account management. The goal is to find opportunities and turn them in long-term profitable relationships based on trust and mutual satisfaction. The ideal candidate will have talent in sales and experience in customer service. You can expect to initially spend 75% of your time executing against new business development within a vertical and 25% of your time managing a pre-existing client relationship. This includes:  

• finding new opportunities and turning them into profitable projects and long-term relationships 
• manage the entire sales cycle, from establishing a customer contact through onboarding.
• remain in frequent contact with the clients in your responsibility to understand their needs.
• respond to issues aiming to customer contentment and the preservation of the company’s reputation
• weekly and monthly reporting for both prospective deals and current client relationship status
• negotiate agreements and keep records of sales and data

How We Measure Success: 

• Depth counts, but quality is everything. One measurement of success is making new contacts and relationships. But just as when you "buy followers" on a social media platform, if the quality of the connections you're making isn't there, it isn't likely to lead to business. We'll measure this weekly with a PAR report. 

• Relationship-Minded Sales Cycle Management.  While our services are in high-demand, we pride ourselves on being in the business for more than a quick buck. We have a 95% renewal rate with our average client relationship being 4 years. This starts with learning what has value to prospective customers and starting to build a relationship even before they become a client.  After contract, we'll look at the communication cadence and what comes from that to measure relationship management success. 

• EVP Engagements.  Our EVP development process is the best in the business, affordable and in demand. This is a project many companies are undertaking in the first half of 2022. In the first 90 days, our expectation is you will have at least 3 EVP projects in near-term pipeline and 1-2 engagements closed.  It is realistic to be able to exceed this target but definitely requires bonus-level effort, so if you nail it, you'll get a secondary bonus in addition to regular commission. 

We will measure mutual initial fit at 90 days, once you've gotten a chance to know us and the work a bit better. After that, as long as things are getting done we do mutual reviews quarterly to gain feedback, adopt and adjust goals for ourselves, our org and clients. During the quarter, we use weekly micro-feedback weekly to help us keep things running smoothly. Compensation is a living wage base + commission; no one works on spec or "against commission" at GBS. 

If you're interested, apply now and we'll talk. The next step will be a phone or video interview with the hiring manager, Dwane Lay, followed by a team talk with you over Zoom and maybe a (paid) group exercise. Our goal is to have our new team member in place by Feb 28th.  *This role is fully remote; while preference is given to the locations above, the right person can be located anywhere in the United States.