What does selling suits have to do with building homes? More than you'd think. In this episode, Michael sits down with Dennis Webb, VP of Operations at Fulton Homes in Tempe, Arizona -- a man who spent 25 years in retail before walking into an industry he knew nothing about, and quietly rewiring it from the inside.
Dennis describes what he found when he arrived:
"Retail was very sophisticated, had great systems. Homebuilding? They were building houses like they were 200 years prior. I looked at it and said, wait a minute -- there's a bunch of stuff that could be done here."
He got to work. Computerized contracts. Performance tracking. Phoenix's first builder website in 1997. Interactive floor plans. And eventually, a 13,000 square foot design center with 2,300 options and a digital portal buyers spend 10 hours on before their first appointment -- built entirely on retail principles.
"We're going to be transparent with them. We're going to be completely honest, tell them what everything costs. If they have that transparency, they're going to trust us more than all the other builders."
The numbers followed. One design center, one city, 40 million dollars in a single year -- third in the country for sales per square foot, behind Apple, ahead of Tiffany.
The conversation also covers good-better-best pricing, why package-only options miss the point, land-heavy community development, and how Fulton doubled its market share while going through Chapter 11 in 2009.
"We did the opposite of all the publics. We kept building, we kept advertising, we kept innovating. We went in with 3 percent market share and came out with 7."
Dennis closes with a challenge to the whole industry:
"We're copping out, we're doing it halfway. If we take retail principles and apply them -- particularly treating the customer with the utmost respect -- it's going to improve the industry."
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About Dennis Webb
Dennis Webb is VP of Operations at Fulton Homes, overseeing Sales, Marketing, Operations, and the Fulton Homes Design Center. In 29 years he has helped transform Fulton into one of the more forward-thinking builders in the country. Fulton was the first builder nationally to build all homes to Energy Star version 3.0, and Dennis received the inaugural Indoor airPLUS Leader of the Year award. He served on the EEBA Board for six years, five on the Executive Committee, and was President in 2022. Before Fulton, he was VP of Stores at Eagleson's, and before that spent 20 years at Hart, Schaffner and Marx. He graduated from Chapman University, lives in Tempe with his wife Janis of over 40 years, and is the author of "From Blue Suits to Green Homes -- Retail Principles in Homebuilding." His daughter Laura is Executive Director of a non-profit in Los Angeles and his son Darin is a lawyer in San Diego.
Fulton Homes:
https://www.fultonhomes.com
Dennis Webb on LinkedIn:
/ dennis-webb-39a5287
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:52 Sound Capital
02:44 Welcome Dennis Webb
03:50 From Retail to Building
06:19 Uprooting for Phoenix
07:31 Retail Skills Meet Homebuilding
10:21 Early Process Overhauls
12:33 First Builder Website
15:34 Interactive Options Revolution
16:47 Fulton Homes Origin Story
23:22 Customer First Philosophy
24:31 Design Center Breakthrough
33:45 Design Center Footprints
34:20 Good Better Best Pricing
34:43 Wow Factor Showpieces
36:27 Anchoring Psychology
38:20 Choice Beats Packages
41:06 Merchandising Like Retail
42:43 Sales Per Square Foot
45:16 Marketing That Tracks
47:03 Coldwater Springs Golf Community
50:26 Schools And Amenities Strategy
52:39 Land Heavy Funding Model
56:33 Big Land Deals And Banks
57:56 Hearthstone Award Story
01:00:48 Quick Fire Round
01:02:33 Retail Principles Closing
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