In the high turnover segment of quick service, Domino’s Pizza franchisee Dave Melton hasn’t lost a store manager in six years. The average employee tenure is eight years. Melton, who opened his first Manhattan store in 1989 with his wife and partner, Angie, now has six units, including two in Connecticut. Employees who started out delivering pizza now make $60,000 to $80,000 a year as managers, overseeing stores that average $1 million in annual sales. Four of Dave and Angie’s former employees have gone on to become millionaire Domino’s franchisees. Dave Melton often has shared his business approach with audiences in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Now he has written it all down in a new book, “Hire the American Dream,” (John Wiley & Sons, 2009) co-authored by Tim McIntyre, Domino’s vice president of communications. Melton lays out his philosophy in 10 chapters, including such topics as “Don’t Hire Warm Bodies—Hire Warm People!” “Teach Philosophy and Opportunity First,” and “Next, Teach Customer Service.”
How did it feel to write a book about your business?
The interesting thing, when it was developed with the publisher, his objective was not to have me write a Domino’s book, but one that had universal management and employee practices in it to help whoever was running a business.
I’m incredibly proud of this book. It wouldn’t have been nearly as good without Tim McIntyre and his incredible contribution to it, and I’m proud of my team for giving me the platform to write it.
How do you keep your employees motivated?
Let’s face it, people don’t start working at Domino’s for the cool uniform, but because they want to make money. If you say, “Do this and you will make more money,” they get it.
A manager’s job, in my opinion, is to clear the way for an employee to make as much money as he can. The way he makes more money is to make the company have more sales and more satisfied customers.
That seems pretty straightforward.
That’s what you get at first: “I need a job to pay rent.” What turns people on is this is a fun place to work, and they have some opportunity. One of the things I’m most proud of is people love being here and having fun. Money gets them in the door, and it’s all the other stuff that makes them do their job great, makes them stay.
