Closing the gender gap in sales - Heidi’s personal branding experience
Heidi Solomon-Orlick (LinkedIn) is a powerhouse. After 32 years in B2B technology sales, a highly male-dominated, notoriously ‘bro-ey’ profession, she decided she wanted to focus on her legacy and impact in the world. So in 2021, at 62, she founded GirlzWhoSell, a company whose mission is to not only to close the gender gap in B2B sales, but also to build the largest pipeline of diverse early-stage female sales talent. Her company works with colleges, universities and corporations, focusing on mentorship, training and placement of women in B2B sales roles.
In this interview, we talk about Heidi’s vision, how she’s developing her brand as a first-time entrepreneur, and her experience of her photo shoot. This blog post summarizes the interview, with the full video at the end.
Why is there such a huge gender gap in sales?
Heidi’s mission is to close the gender gap in B2B sales.
There are so many reasons! Sales has always been positioned as a career for men, and women carry several negative perceptions of what sales involves. Whether it’s the used-car salesman stereotype, or the bro culture, women have shied away from sales because they didn’t believe it fit in with their values, personality and skill sets. Most women I’ve interviewed in sales say that they fell into it by accident, so women are not recruited actively into it. Job ads around sales are very male-oriented. There’s a lot of inherent bias in the hiring process. I can go on and on.
The fact, however, is that women are better at sales. On a lot of different metrics, they outperform their male counterparts significantly, whether it’s in generating revenue, moving deals through the pipeline or closing them. In GirlsWhoSell, we emphasize that sales is actually about serving people, solving their business challenges. It’s about emotional intelligence, trust, relationship building; everything that comes naturally to women because of the way we’re raised.
Right now, the number of women in B2B sales overall is 35%. If you look at sales leadership, it drops down to 19%, and down to 12% in tech sales. And if you want to consider women of color, it’s down to low single digits. My life’s mission is to solve for that, or at least move the needle in my lifetime.
That’s such a powerful ambition! What made you decide to do a photo session?
I’ve been thinking a lot about company vs. personal branding. I’m a 62 y/o white woman trying to convince young women from diverse, underrepresented communities to consider a career in sales. While I understand that it’s important to position myself as an expert, I want our students, the women in our program to be the face of the GirlsWhoSell brand. But I realized that I have to still establish credibility: whether I’m talking to corporate sponsors, or positioning myself for speaking engagements or awards, it’s important to have a branding strategy for myself. Photography is key to creating a brand and how you present yourself.
What was the process of planning the photo shoot like for you?
I loved it! I’ve done some photo shoots in the past and no one’s ever asked me to create a mood board. It gave me the opportunity to go on Pinterest, look at photos and think about how I wanted to represent myself in the market. What I realized is there there are a lot of different complex sides to me that I wanted to show: corporate Heidi vs. family Heidi vs. entrepreneur Heidi vs. activist Heidi, or just Heidi in the garden or Heidi reading a book. It was a really cool process to start pulling pictures. What began to emerge through the process was that I had a definite aesthetic, which helped both of use better understand what we were trying to achieve.
At some point, my son Justin got involved, and I really appreciated how you embraced that process. He came in and was like, “Oh my God mom, that’s not you! Just leave this to me.” He just took control of everything and started adding his own photos. And when the three of us went through the mood board, you were able to instantly tell which one was a Heidi picture vs. a Justin picture!
It was really great to see his perception of me as a female executive and his mother versus the way I viewed myself. I tend to be more serious and he brought a lot of fun, so we met somewhere in the middle. Justin is a fashion designer, so he picked my wardrobe and jewelry.
It was an eye-opening experience for me to go through the planning process, and I highly recommend it. For your clients who have the option, it can also bring a unique perspective to have a family member or close friend involved.
Above: Heidi’s mood board had a combination of photos by her and her son Justin, a fashion designer based in Brooklyn. Can you spot the difference? The result was a wonderfully well-rounded board that gave a complete picture of Heidi as a person. Check out the complete board on Pinterest.
How did the actual session go for you?
Everything felt really well organized! I was driving down from New Hampshire, so I was a littler nervous about getting there. I also wanted to make sure that we captured photos that spoke to all of my constituent groups: the women I mentor, the corporate sponsors and so on. The planning process helped with that. I also wanted to make sure we had a location with enough versatility to capture different kinds of shots for these audiences. When we got to it, everything went smoothly!
The makeup artist you arranged for did a great job. I wanted to look natural, not overly made-up and glamorous. The location we rented was extremely versatile; we got some indoor shots, some office shots, some out on the balcony and some on the rooftop with the city in the background. We were even able to walk to a park right before sunset. So the photos look like we’ve been all over the city, even though we stayed in a couple of blocks.
It was great for me to have Justin there, bringing all this crazy music. It put me at ease and that translated into the photos. We also lucked out with the weather. I loved that even though you posed me for a lot of photos, they don’t look posed, and you also got a lot of candid shots.
Heidi’s son Justin, despite his demeanor in the photo, was a complete charmer and helped us put his mom at ease throughout the shoot.
What did it feel like to see your photos? What kind of feedback are you getting for them?
Heidi’s favorite photo with her favorite quote
It was awesome. It was almost like: Who is this person?
I came into the shoot feeling a bit insecure, but when I saw the photos, I felt like I wasn’t that old or ugly at all. You definitely got my good side! I loved the shots you picked, and it was great to have the opportunity to see some of the shots that didn’t make it. Overall, I was really emotional.
Now, I know I have so many good shots, and I have to think about how to incorporate it into my overall branding strategy. I’ve already changed my photos on LinkedIn and sharing some of them, and I’ll use them on my website, on speaker bios and so on. One of the photos is the promo piece on my new book.
I love the shot of me drinking the coffee cup with the “Bring a folding chair” quote on it. It’s already my LinkedIn profile photo.
I’m already getting lots of great feedback for the photos. My kids are like, “Wow, you look really good, mom!” The photos do a great job in showing my personality, not just looking or being professional.
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
Above: Heidi wanted her photos to capture a variety of different sides of herself: executive, mother, activist, entrepreneur
Would you recommend this experience to a friend?
I already have! I’m already thinking about more shoots at different times of the year and different places myself.
I’d tell them that you really take the time to understand them as a person. It’s not just showing up at the shoot and putting in your couple of hours. I’ve done photo shoots in the past. The differentiator in this case is that through the whole process, we really got to know each other, which ended up being reflected in the photos. It’s a great value and worth every single dime you spend on getting it done.
