Jim Karrh - The Science of Customer Connections: Manage Your Message to Grow Your Business

Fresh, on-point, authentic. Crafting the story that encapsulates your business's value and managing the way that message is shared every day can amplify your volume and extend your reach. Jim Karrh offers a fresh look at messaging, backed by research and years of experience, and provides the tools and playbook template that can help your organization's distinctive voice resonate rather than being lost in background noise. Stop sounding like everyone else and start growing.

Whitney Johnson, LinkedIn 2018 Top Influencer, bestselling
author of Build an A Team and Disrupt Yourself

In Relationship Economics, I wrote that great business relationships are predicated by great conversations. Great conversations come from a fantastic message that's well positioned, managed, and proactively communicated to engage and influence otherstheir thinking and call to action. Jim Karrh's book is your roadmap, in his interesting, humorous, and insightful manner, to stand up, stand out, and stand beyond the mundane and elevate your presence and business relationships in business conversations.

David Nour, CEO, The Nour Group, Inc., bestselling
author, Marshall Goldsmith MG100 member and
adjunct faculty at the Goizueta Business School at
Emory University

The volume of information we receive every day is staggering! It's not easy to separate the mindless messages from the mindful ones. Jim's book helps you break free from the message maelstrom and win your audience's hearts and minds.

Lisa Nirell, author of Energize Growth NOW and The Mindful
Marketer, CMO success expert, and founder of Energize-Growth LLC

With this book, Jim Karrh has taken a lifetime of experience and exploration into the art and science of connecting purposefully, yet meaningfully. Jim has compiled an organized, accessible success guide for smart professionals everywhere. Given that Jim is a man of intelligence and thoughtfulnesssomeone who walks his talk and knows how to create great conversation experiencesthis book is a must-read for those who want to learn how to align their everyday exchanges with the vision and values of their businesses.

Patti DeNucci, author of The Intentional Networker

Jim Karrh's book can unquestionably improve your success. In today's noisy business environment, your ability to influence clients, teammates, executives, leadership, and boards through agile conversations and communication is a must have. Personally, I have witnessed hundreds of technically talented and skilled people neutralize and negate their career potential due to subpar and/or average messaging approaches. I have also seen other, similarly talented individuals who managed to develop and leverage impactful messaging skills; those people performed better, achieved more, and advanced their careers faster. It is an absolute truth: connecting with others through powerful conversations is key to improved performance and relationship building. This book is a must-read for anyone who aspires.

Gary Peacock, retired Chairman, President, and CEO of
SunTrust Bank South Division

I have coached thousands of professionals in the very competitive world of commercial real estate. One of the keys to success is to build a message that attracts and resonates with ideal clientsand to do so consistently. Those of us who offer high-value products and services can't afford to be seen as a commodity! Jim's approach will help you to earn your true value by standing out in everyday business conversations.

Rod Santomassimo, founder of The Massimo Group
and author of Brokers Who Dominate and Teams Built
to Dominate

You really need to read Jim Karrh's book. Every chapter is filled with ideas and examples that will help you be more successful. I read more than one hundred business books a year and would consider this one of the most valuable books I have read in a very long time.

John Spence, leadership and business consultant, coach
and author, named by the American Management Association
as one of America's Top 50 Leaders to Watch

Words matter and influence the effectiveness of messaging. The right words sharpen and improve messagingamplifying its power in a sea of sound bite noise. Jim Karrh's timely, humorous, and intelligent book is must reading for leaders trying to distinguish their voice and rise above competitors in communicating efficiently and with impact!

Toby Hoden, chief marketing officer for several global
investment management firms

This edition first published in 2019 by Career Press, an imprint of

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

With offices at:

65 Parker Street, Suite 7

Newburyport, MA 01950

www.careerpress.com

www.redwheelweiser.com

Copyright 2019 by Jim Karrh, PhD

Foreword copyright 2019 by Dorie Clark

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

ISBN: 978-1-63265-153-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.

Cover design by Ellen Varitimos

Interior by Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Typeset in Warnock Pro, RB No 2.1, and Myriad Pro

Printed in Canada

MAR

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THIS COULD GET DICEY.

Several of my friends who also happen to be authors say this section is one of the toughest to write. There are so many people deserving of thanks and recognition! I will keep this brief, understanding that I will likely commit errors of omission. I apologize in advance.

Being a teacher at heart, I realize how blessed I have been to have had great teachers along the way. At the University of Florida and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, I learned important concepts from incredibly bright people dedicated to sharing their knowledge. I have continued to learn as I have stayed connected to these two fine institutions.

As a professor myself, I had terrific colleagues at Ithaca College, the University of Alabama, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I learned a lot from my students, too.

I offer my thanks to private-sector employers and work colleagues over the years at Bankers Trust Company, Mountain Valley Spring Company, Mangan Holcomb Partners, and Advantage Communications. My friend Steve Layne had the (probably misguided) courage to go into the tiny-market radio business with me years ago. We never built that media empire, but it was a great experience nonetheless.

For nearly a decade (and counting), I have been a consulting principal with DSG Consulting. It is a privilege to work alongside outstanding consultants in a culture that supports human beings as a whole, with the opportunity to work for clients across industries and around the world.

Coaches also need coaches, and I have had some of the best in the world in Dorie Clark, David Nour, and Alan Weiss.

I am also grateful to those at Arkansas Business Publishing Group, the American Marketing Association, and many other journalists and podcasters who have allowed me to share my ideas with hundreds of thousands of working professionals.