Pulte Homes
Handbook for Winning

These are non-negotiable!

Investing in People

One of the directives throughout the course of the year was to make sure that we not only saturated ourselves with consumers, but we got into colleges and universities so that we could hire the best of the best into our organization. Roughly 75% of our new hires last year were college recruits, which is the equivalent of about 800 folks. The question that everybody always ask is, "How do you actually bring them in, give them a clear understanding and get successful results out of folks that have no idea what the building business is about?"

First of all, they need to understand what the core values are that I just mentioned. They need to know what the strategic plan is and what the measurement systems are. A human resource plan: where are they going? Is there something that's going to happen with me if I start with Pulte today? Will I get a training guide? What will it be? What about six months, a year, two or five years from now? Without that kind of a plan and without that kind of confidence that their career is going to grow in the direction that it should, people do not stay.

We have a defined training process. We actually have a mentoring program within Pulte, which helps drive consistency throughout its 44 markets. Everybody that joins our company has a mentor, and that mentor guides them through whatever it is they're about to do. A lot of folks have the same mentor for three, four and five years. It's incredible to be able to talk to somebody who's not your boss to find out just exactly what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong.

I work for a gentleman named Steven Petruska, who is COO. My mentor is now a VP who was at the home office out in Las Vegas. I still call him and I say, "Hey, before I turn this in, would you take a look at this?" He's been with the company for 20 years. He certainly understands what's going on. He gives me feedback and he doesn't call my boss Steve and say, "By the way, he's an idiot!"

Building Relationships

How many times have you stayed in a hotel, checked in, stayed seven days, and they will not talk to you about your experience until you leave? They just won't. Upon checkout they will ask, "How was everything?" and you don't care now. You'll say,"Fine," you leave and they've lost you.

Now, imagine a seven-year stay - our homeowners buy a new home approximately every 6.4 years within Pulte. Same situation - if we don't ask them in six months, a year, two years, etc., we just don't get the repeat and referral business that we're looking for.

How much leniency do you give your people in the field? As much as they need. How do they know what to do and what not to do? Well, we have a mission that's consistent and simple. These core values are driven just as much by the new folks that have been with us for a year as by the folks that have been with us for 20 years.

It lends itself directly to the "do the right thing" thing. "Should I replace the driveway?" "Should we do this or that for the homeowners?" "Is it the right thing to do?" That's the guidance. Would you do it for your mom? Because there are a number of times that I have told my mom, "No, that's ridiculous." She may be upset about it, but if you have a personal relationship with a homeowner - because that's what you need in order to make sure that you continue to get repeat and referral business - you can tell them no. You just have to build the relationship first.

Know What You're Really Selling

If I had one message to send, I would say, I hope your superintendent, your sales person and your customer service has a personal relationship with the homeowners, because it will make you money. We do approximately $5.5 billion in repeat and referral business. It's an extraordinary amount of money, and when you take a look at all of this, the question that I'm asking is, "Do you sell homes?"

Does Harley-Davidson sell motorcycles? A friend of mine bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle in Phoenix and said he would pick it up on a Friday. They said, "No, we'll deliver it to you." He said, "No, I'll pick it up on Friday," and they went back and forth. Finally they said, "We're going to deliver it to you on Saturday at your house. What time do you want us to be there?," and he said: "Fine. Noon is great."

So on Saturday, this black F350 Ford Truck, pulling a black pearl trailer, rolls through the gates of his community. There are two Harley-Davidson dudes in the front, with the bandanas and the sunglasses on and "Bad to the Bone" playing on the radio. They pull right up in front of my buddy's home. One dude gets out, walks to the back of the truck, opens up the trailer, gets in the back, gets on the cycle, fires it up, rides down off the back of the ramp, around the cul-de-sac and into the driveway. He hits the throttle one more time, kickstand off, and says, "Congratulations on your new Harley-Davidson."

What was Harley-Davidson doing with his family? In awe, what were his neighbors saying? "Me next! Drop one off here!"

There's more: He goes into the office on Monday and, at 2:00 in the afternoon, a young lady from the dealership drops off two-dozen Harley-Davidson cupcakes. They say "Harley-Davidson." Why drop off cupcakes? Because everybody eats them.

What does Harley-Davidson understand at this point and time? This guy wants to talk about his bike. You can tell three or four of your friends that you just got a new motorcycle, and they're completely fine with it, but the rest of the office is not going to respond well to it. So the cupcake is the way to go. "What's up with the Harley-Davidson cupcake?" Now he's able to tell that story.

Let me just encapsulate this for you: Harley-Davidson sells him the bike, takes his money, uses him, his family, his neighbors, and then all of his co-workers - and he's thrilled about it. That's over the top. That's incredible management. But Harley-Davidson understands entirely that they don't sell bikes. Toyota doesn't sell cars. Starbucks doesn't specifically sell coffee. They write your name on the cup and you're happy that someone yells your name out when you go up to get it. You like that. That's what we do. We're stupid people, but that's what we like.

In the same way, we don't sell homes. Bill Pulte will tell you that we sell a home on a lot, in a community, and an experience of a lifetime. I know it sounds soft, but when you think about driving a personal relationship, the mentoring and training and bringing people in and making sure the development is there, all those soft skills that go into that, they end up saving you money. They end up giving you a return on investment that you will not believe.

Visit the Pulte Homes Web site at www.pulte.com