By Matt Craven, Founder of The Independent Professionals’ Business Growth Club, The CV & Interview Advisors and Linked-In-Credible

The Good Old Days!

When I was first making my way in business, I always admired well-connected business leaders; those people who seemed to know everyone, that had a (not so) little black book as thick as a Tolkien novel, the enormous rolodex and the business card folder with literally hundreds of cards in it. They always seemed to know someone who could solve a problem and were never short of help when the need arose.

The Bad New Days?

Indeed, being well connected was always revered, but somehow social media seems to have turned people off building their network and embracing networking. The number of people I meet that seem to prefer a ‘fly-under-the-radar’ or ‘I’m just not into LinkedIn’ approach to business is eye opening.

At its heart, LinkedIn is just an online version of a that little black book, or perhaps a better way to look at it is that Lin...

By Matt Craven, Founder of The Independent Professionals' Business Growth Club, Linked-In-Credible and The CV & Interview Advisors

Here's an article I wrote for the Institute of Sales Management, which I have edited to give an Independent Professionals' context.

Many years ago, I attended a sales training programme which focused on some of the fundamentals of selling. The trainer talked through the typical sales cycle, which they referred to as ‘The Sales Wedge’. They went on to draw a right angle triangle and divided it into 5 sections. At the thin end of the wedge was ‘Rapport Building’ (the start of the sales process), then there was ‘Needs Analysis’ (the largest section), then we had ‘Presentation’ followed by ‘Objection Handling’ and finally, ‘Closing’.

It made perfect sense and many years later, I have adapted the framework and suggest using The Sales Wedge as a powerful technique to turbo charge your interview technique and drive more contract, NED, interim or freelance offer...

By Matt Craven, Founder of The Independent Professional's Business Growth Club, The CV & Interview Advisors and Linked-In-Credible

I've recently received an email from someone in my business network (Nigel from the EC) who has recently read a book titled "How the World Sees You” by Sally Hogshead.

It’s all about Positioning and Personal Branding, which is a topic very close to my heart.

Nigel was rather taken by Sally’s teachings and used it as a tool for educating his SME clients, but it is highly relevant for Contractors too.

I’ve pinched a few parts of Nigel’s email (thanks big man) and tailored it to the Contract / Interim market.

The key point that Nigel homes in on is how many businesses describe themselves as being ‘better’ or ‘the best’. Based on Sally’s book, Nigel talk about how a business should resist the urge to pitch themselves as ‘better’ and focus on how they are ‘different’.

Sally highlights her point with a metaphor about ice cream and asks her audience to thing...