In-House PR offers these notes (not a presentation) from a recent talk about the importance of reputation to all businesses, including 10 ways to build and leverage your reputation.

1. A note about this presentation
Following are notes from a brief presentation to the Randolph (NJ) Chamber of
Commerce. I did my speaking notes in PowerPoint because I find it an easy way to
organize my thoughts and create notes.The presentation, however, was strictly verbal
and not done with PowerPoint. Because what follows are speaking notes, they’re not
pretty and they don’t follow good visual presentation practices.
Doug Fenichel,APR

2. REPUTATION:
YOUR MOST
POWERFUL SALES
TOOL
Randolph Area Chamber of Commerce – Nov. 19, 2015

3. Introduction
■ President of my own firm, In-House Public Relations, since 2011
– Homebuilding, real estate, public safety and healthcare
– Clients have included:Greentree Development, K Hovnanian, D.R. Horton, Morristown
Parking Authority, PizzeriaUno
– Media relations, government relations, special events, social media, crisis mgmt.
■ Worked for companies such as K. Hovnanian Homes, Saint Clare’s Hospital andAT&T
■ Past president, ethics officer for PRSA; 2nd VPAssoc Affairs Metro; Pres CAPC
■ Adjunct Professor of Communications at Montclair State College
■ Paramedic and firefighter

4. Agenda
■ What is your reputation
■ Why is it important
■ 10Ways to build your reputation
■ 10 ways to leverage it

5. So what is your reputation?
■ Reputation is the emotional connection between your business and people
■ Your reputation is measured by trust, respect and the good feeling people get from
doing business with you.

6. The State ofTrust
■ Trust has fallen on some hard times
■ Lots of studies on trust
– I like the Edelman AnnualTrust Barometer
– Looks at several countries, including the United States
■ 2015 studies had some bad news

7. The State ofTrust
■ 63 percent trust NGOs…down from 66 percent last year
■ 57 percent trust business ….down from 59 percent last year
■ 51 percent trust the media…down from 53 percent last year
■ 48 percent trust the government…up from 45 percent last year
■ From dismal to worse.

8. The State ofTrust
■ Search engines are the most trusted medium
– Online search trusted by 72 percent
– Traditional media – 64 percent
– Hybrid media – 63 percent
– Online media – 59 percent
– Owned media – 57 percent

9. The State ofTrust
■ Who do you trust?
– Friends and family – 72 percent
– Academic expert – 70 percent
– Companies I use – 60 percent
– Journalists – 53 percent
– Elected officials – 40 percent
– Celebrities – 34 percent
■ Credibility
– Academic or industry expert – 70 percent
– Company technical expert – 67 percent
– A person like yourself – 63 percent
– CEO – 43 percent
– Government officials – 38 percent

10. Why do we need trust?
■ So trust is in trouble
■ So what?Why is trust important?
■ Why should you care?
■ There is a solid return on investment in building trust and earning a good reputation

11. Why do we need trust?
■ Trusted companies:
– 80 percent chose to buy products or services
– 68 percent recommended to friends, family & colleague
– 54 percent paid more for the same product or service
– 40 percent defended the company
– 28 percent bought shares
■ Untrusted companies
– 63 percent refused to buy
– 58 percent criticized to friends/colleagues
– 37 percent shared negative perceptions online
– 18 percent sold shares

12. How do you build your reputation?
1. Use ethical business practices
2. Take responsibility for your actions
1. Customer service
2. Crisis
3. Issues
3. Be transparent
4. Listen to your customers in person and online
5. Treat your employees well

13. How do your reputation?
6. Put customers ahead of profit
7. Communicate about the state of your business
8. Engage your customers
9. Offer good quality goods and services
10. Find ways to tackle social and community issues, esp in your backyard

14. How do you leverage your reputation?
1. Know who’s watching: customers, regulators, investors, competitors, enemies
2. Understand how important each (and subsegments) are to your business.
3. Engage them
1. Know your messages
2. Deliver the right message to the right people at the right time via the right media
3. If you don’t tell your story, someone else will
4. Use a variety of media to deliver your messages
5. Educate, don’t just sell

15. How do you leverage your reputation?
6. Give back to the community
7. Think about your business in 3 ways: financially, legally and reputationally
8. Solve problems
9. When talking about your business, align with academics, NGOs and experts
10. Offer top-quality goods or services and be able to demonstrate their quality through
independent tests.

16. Leveraging reputation: Bonus point
■ Ask for help
– Use a professional to help build and defend your reputation
– Engage across a variety of media at a different level than advertising
– Have a professional help you crystalize your messages and deliver them across
various media to demonstrate expertise, commitment and ethical behavior
■ Will help you use your reputation to build your business and thrive in a time that is
increasingly contentious and hypercritical in a very public way.

17. Q&A
(Ask for questions)

18. Doug Fenchel,APR
President
In-House Public Relations
Flanders, N.J.
(201) 575-1538
doug@inhousepr.biz