PEO Sales, Account Executive

Gusto provides payroll, health insurance, 401(k), and HR solutions to small businesses. The PEO Sales Account Executive will be a founding member of the PEO sales team, responsible for driving new revenue through net-new sales and converting existing payroll customers to PEO. The role owns the full sales cycle, develops referral channels, manages pipeline and forecasting, serves as a PEO subject matter expert, and uses AI-powered workflows to improve sales effectiveness.

Responsibilities:

• Prospect, qualify, run discovery, demo, navigate complex buying groups, and close. This is a quota-carrying role for a seller who's comfortable owning a deal from first touch to signed agreement
• Close net-new prospects and convert existing Gusto payroll customers to PEO. You'll learn the distinct objections, value propositions, and rhythms of in-base selling vs. cold-start prospecting
• Guide prospects through co-employment, benefits, compliance, and the practical realities of moving onto a PEO. Build and maintain deep knowledge of PEO compliance, co-employment regulations, and applicable state and federal employment law
• Understand and plan around PEO's concentrated selling window (Sept–Dec, with the bulk of new business landing Jan 1). Build pipeline early and manage your funnel to hit those timelines
• Partner with broker, GA, and accountant referral sources to develop pipeline, and feed insights back on what's converting
• Keep Salesforce clean and current, forecast accurately, and operate within the sales stages, routing, and reporting the team establishes
• Bring genuine AI fluency to your daily workflow — leveraging AI tools for prospecting, call prep, follow-up, and forecast hygiene. We expect our sellers to be hands-on with AI and to share what's working with the broader team
• Work closely with Marketing, Product, and the broader Sales org to surface market signals, sharpen positioning, and improve the customer experience

Requirements:

• 4+ years in a closing sales role, ideally in PEO, HCM, or benefits
• Consistent, demonstrable track record of meeting and exceeding individual sales targets
• Proven ability to own a deal end to end — prospecting, discovery, multi-stakeholder navigation, and close — in a consultative, complex sale
• Understanding of broker, GA, and accountant referral channels in the PEO or benefits space
• Strong working knowledge of inbound and outbound sales methodologies in SMB SaaS or HCM/PEO environments
• Ability to work effectively across HR, Benefits, Product, and Marketing; excellent interpersonal skills
• Proven, day-to-day experience integrating AI into how you work — across writing, research, prep, and summarization as a core part of your workflow, with a track record of giving clear, useful feedback that helps improve your tools and processes
• Salesforce.com (SFDC) experience required; familiarity with HCM platforms and benefits administration tools preferred
• Direct PEO selling experience is strongly preferred
• Familiarity with PEO's Jan 1 selling cycle (Sept–Dec pipeline build, renewal dynamics) is a strong plus and a key screen for PEO-specific experience vs. generic HCM
• Experience selling into or converting an existing customer base to a higher-tier or adjacent product is a plus