Account Executive - France

About the Role We're building the sales engine for Tellent HR in the French market, and we're looking for an Account Executive to help us do it. Think of it as joining a startup inside a scale-up. First and foremost, this is a hands-on selling role. You'll own the full sales cycle for Tellent HR (Manage and/or Grow), split roughly 80/20 between new business and expansion into our existing customer base. Inbound isn't going to be your main pipeline driver, so expect to spend around 50% of your time prospecting, against ambitious daily and weekly activity targets. Alongside that, you'll help us work out how we win in France: testing motions fast and doubling down on what drives revenue. You'll work with a dedicated Product Marketing Manager and Customer Success Manager in the Tellent HR squad. CS capacity is limited, though, so you'll run deals independently, including demos and follow-through. Your 12-Month Journey • First 3 months: Learn Tellent HR, our ideal customers and the competitive landscape in France. Build your first pipeline through outbound, establish a consistent daily activity rhythm, and close your first deals. • Within 6 months: Consistently hit your activity, pipeline and revenue targets, understand which sales motions work best in the French market, and feed insights back to Product Marketing and Product. • After 1 year: Be the go-to expert on selling Tellent HR in France, with a repeatable, data-backed playbook that others can pick up. What You'll Be Doing • Own the full sales cycle, independently: Run 1–3 month, multi-stakeholder deals involving HR leaders, founders/CEOs and Finance, from first touch through to close and follow-through. • Hunt for new pipeline (around 50% of your time): Prospect by phone, email and LinkedIn, consistently hit your daily and weekly activity targets, and maintain 3–4x pipeline coverage. Partner, CS and marketing leads are a bonus, not the plan. • Drive expansion: Prospect into existing Tellent customers to cross-sell and upsell, e.g. Recruitee customers adding Tellent HR, or Manage customers adding Grow. • Sell on value: Run consultative discovery and tailored demos, position on business outcomes, and handle objections, including against key competitors (with support from PMM). • Manage deals with discipline: Use mutual action plans, keep HubSpot accurate (including SPICED), forecast reliably and disqualify early. • Test and build, alongside selling: Experiment with sales motions, sequences and verticals, help build the playbook with our PMM, and bring customer and competitive insights from the French market back to Product and Marketing. What You Bring • Early-stage DNA: You've sold in a startup or early scale-up and built pipeline and processes where none existed. You know what it means to be an early sales hire. • Proven hunter: A track record of self-generating pipeline through outbound and consistently hitting ambitious activity targets. You genuinely enjoy picking up the phone and creating opportunities from scratch. • B2B SaaS sales experience: You've closed new business (ideally expansion too) as a fully autonomous AE in a startup or early scale-up, running 1–5 month, multi-stakeholder sales cycles. HR tech experience is a plus, not essential. • Self-sufficient and resilient: You don't wait for leads, support teams or perfect processes. You bounce back from rejection and stay disciplined through the ups and downs of building something new. • Consultative and data-driven: Strong discovery, demo and negotiation skills. You anchor on value before price and know your numbers (pipeline, conversion, win rate and cycle time). • Languages: Fluent English and native or fluent French are required. You'll be responsible for engaging customers and building relationshi