Sometime near the dawn of mankind, there was a hunter-gatherer who was exceptionally good at their job (finding food), and needed to trade their extra food for other necessities like clothing, tools, or services.
And so, that entrepreneurial spirit had to go into their community and make profitable trades with other members of their village.
This was the world’s first salesperson.
Quickly, this primordial salesperson probably had to learn the fundamentals of sales:
- Sell something that people want/need.
- Tailor your message to your target audience.
- Make sure you appear trustworthy and friendly.
Over the past couple decades, the landscape for sales has changed dramatically.
The rise of inside sales (aka sales teams that mostly interact with customers online from a central location vs mostly interact with them in-person at their location) has amplified these changes over the last 10 years.
Instead of knocking on doors, salespeople are now sending cold-email and LinkedIn messages.
Instead of in-person sales meetings, video conference calls with powerpoint slides and demos are the norm.
For inside sales teams, these days, most selling conversations happen online. And for many of these conversations, your sales reps will have their photo front-and-center:
LinkedIn Profile Photos are the first thing most people look at when evaluating incoming connection requests and InMails.
Email Profile Photos show prominently (only piece of color in an otherwise black-and-white email inbox screen) in cold emails.
Sales Powerpoint Presentations include photos of reps, company executives, and customer success personnel.
But, mostly because of the cost/hassle involved in organizing company headshots for reps, many sales leaders haven’t yet embraced the need for professional headshots for their salespeople.
So, are sales team headshots worth it?
Some leaders wonder whether it’s really “worth it” to invest in headshots for their team….
And the answer?
It depends.
There are certainly situations where sales reps operate in purely transactional and/or in-person sales situations and might not need professional headshots…
But, for most modern professional sales organizations, these conditions rarely apply to their sales process.
You would never let your reps regularly walk into potential clients’ offices dressed poorly, with a crazy haircut, and dirt on their face – so why let them represent themselves poorly online with a bad headshot?
Their online profiles likely have 20x the exposure of their actual on-site presence. And their photo is literally used in almost every part of the sales process. A bad photo screams desperation and inexperience.
Sales leaders instinctively know that first impressions can have a powerful impact on sales prospects and customers.
So if you’re asking yourself whether your salespeople really need professional headshots, consider three questions:
A) Do my reps predominantly interact with customers using online tools? (PowerPoints, LinkedIn, email, etc)
B) Does my industry/sales process require a certain amount of trust and friendly relationships to be formed between client and salesperson? (Ie it’s not purely transactional sales.)
C) Does the sales price of my product/service justify investing ~$125/rep every 2 years for headshots? (This is HeadShots Inc pricing for sales teams as part of our Corporate Pass Program.)
If your answer to all of these three questions is “yes”, then your sales team probably needs headshots.
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That’s a wrap! If you’re ready to upgrade your team’s headshots, head on over to our Team Sessions page to review pricing and packages.
HeadShots Inc Corporate Passes allow for you to pre-pay for your sales rep’s headshots, and then allows them to schedule their session at their convenience.
It’s the perfect fit for busy sales teams that can’t get together at the same time/place for an office on-site. And, because you’re booking your sessions as a group, we’ll keep all headshots consistent across the team.
