Should Your Inside Sales Teams Get Headshots?
Corporate Headshot Photography Dublin, Alan Rowlette Photography www.alanrowlette.ie
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.
This was multiplied dramatically during the Covid-19 Pandemic and continues to be the case in a new business world that lives alongside Covid-19.
For inside sales teams, these days, most selling conversations happen online. For many of these conversations, your sales reps will have their photo front-and-centre:
LinkedIn Profile Photos are the first thing most people look at when evaluating incoming connection requests and InMails.
According to LinkedIn people with a professional headshot get 14 times more visits and have 36 times more chance of receiving messages than those without.
Email Profile Photos show prominently (only piece of colour 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 organising 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 organisations, 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:
1) Do my reps predominantly interact with customers using online tools? (PowerPoints, LinkedIn, email, etc)
2) 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.)
3) Does the sales price of my product/service justify investing in new headshots for your reps every couple of years ?
If your answer to all of these three questions is “yes”, then your sales team probably needs headshots.
Alan Rowlette is a Dublin-based corporate, PR, event, conference and commercial photographer. Alan's corporate photographic practice specialises in corporate headshots, corporate events, meetings, launches and conference photography. Alan's commercial photography focuses on food, restaurant, people, fitness, product and property photography.
As with all of our work we shoot in a contemporary and dynamic reportage style.
To make and enquiry, or to view more of our work please go to
Alan’s background is firmly rooted in photojournalism and documentary photography and this shines through in his work. Alan specialises in bringing events, brands and businesses to life with his fresh and dynamic reportage approach. Alan's client list includes Google, Meta, Salesforce, Hubspot, TikTok, Diageo, The Royal Convention Centre Dublin, Aviva Stadium, The Convention Centre Dublin, Croke Park, Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, Bord Bia, Failte Ireland, The Happy Pear, Lidl, Bord Gais, Gala Foods and Wicklow Wolf Brewing.
Alan is a member of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, The Dublin Convention Bureau, Association of Irish Professional Conference Organisers and SITE Global.
You can view more of Alan Rowlette’s work here:
Dublin Industrial Photography
Dublin Award Photography
Dublin Brand Storytelling Photography
© Alan Rowlette
