Client at-a Glance
- Sweetwater Sound, Inc.,
- Headquarters: Fort Wayne, Indiana
- 2008 Sales: $140.0 million
- Employees: 330
Founded in 1979 by Chuck Surack as a mobile recording studio, Sweetwater Sound has grown rapidly to become the premier music technology retailer in the world, offering professional recording and live sound equipment, guitars, basses, keyboards, drums, computers and software, and accessories. Products include hundreds of the most respected names in the music business like Digidesign, Roland, Yamaha, Mackie, Korg, Kurzweil and many others. The company’s reputation for over-the-top customer service is legendary in their industry.
Wonderlic Helps Sweetwater Sound Find a Needle in a Haystack
Finding the right person for the job of sales engineer at Sweetwater Sound is, according to Director of Human Resources Jeff McDonald, “like finding a needle in a haystack.” McDonald explains that the sales engineer position is unique because candidates must have both left- and right-brained skills working at the same time. “Generally speaking, highly creative types aren’t necessarily also strong technically,” he says. “Good sales engineers need to be conversant, intuitive, caring and smart. They need great people skills to deliver the brand of outrageous customer service we’re famous for. They must be empathetic listeners, but also assertive enough to ultimately sell their product. The kicker is that they also need deep technical chops in the field of computer recording and music to sell these fairly complex products.”
Good organizational and time management skills are also critical, McDonald explains, noting that package of skill sets is not easy to find in one person.“This is a commission-based job that takes persistence, the fortitude to make 80 sales calls a day, and the business and organizational skills to be able to do it effectively,” he says. That unique combination of traits and skills is in part a function of the position itself but it also has to do with changes in the music industry as a whole, namely because of new technology that has transformed the core of the business. “The music business continues to go through tremendous evolutionary changes,” McDonald says. “What we used to call ‘audio engineering’ we now call ‘music technology.’ To succeed in this career a few years ago, you just needed a good ear for music and some technical know-how.” But now, he explains, the needs for the position have ramped up as a result of the fact that most music is recorded using sophisticated computer technology.
Sweetwater tested its job candidates in the past, but McDonald says the tests didn’t go deeply enough to uncover what he needed to know about each candidate. Furthermore, the testing was all done in person, which necessitated flying candidates into the corporate office in Fort Wayne, IN from anywhere in the U.S. they happened to live. It was an expensive practice, costing the company anywhere from $500 to $900 in airfare, hotels and rental cars per candidate, some of whom turned out to be wrong for the position.
The way McDonald saw it, that was good money down the drain every time a candidate didn’t make the grade. He thought there had to be a better way of screening candidates before they hopped a flight to Fort Wayne, and he turned to Wonderlic for answers. Sweetwater decided to try the Wonderlic Personnel Test-Quick (WPT-Q) and the Comprehensive Personality Profile (CPP). Administered online, the tests would allow McDonald to pre-screen candidates beyond the phone interview Sweetwater had traditionally done, helping to weed out those who were not a good fit for the position from an intellect or personality point of view, and bring only those who were most qualified to the corporate office for interviews. The WPT-R is administered in a proctored environment once the candidate arrives for the on-site interview to double check their intellect.
“We’ve been using the online tests since Thanksgiving of 2008,” he says. “Within four months, it will have pretty much paid for itself with the savings we’ve made on travel expenses alone. It’s also saved me time by not spending an entire day with a candidate who we would discover by mid morning wasn’t going to be a good fit.”
He also predicts another benefit to using the tests: a reduction in turnover. “We have about 20 percent turnover in this position, which is very very good for the retail industry,” he explains. “Usually, turnover happens in the first 18 months, and it happens for two reasons. Various family issues are the number one reason, and to a great degree that’s unpredictable up front. But secondly, some people find they lack the perseverance and commitment necessary for this sales position. It’s a great job, but not easy, so the CPP really helps us figure out if the candidates are going to have the characteristics necessary for long term success here.”
Summing it up, McDonald says, “We couldn’t be more pleased with how this has helped our process. We felt we had a really good success rate before, but it has gone to a whole higher level by adding this step. When you can find something that gives you better hires and saves money at the same time in this economy, it’s a big win.”
The Solutions
- The WPT-R is our latest short-form employment test that measures general intelligence, the strongest single predictor of employment success. As the successor to the traditional Wonderlic Personnel Test, the WPT-R incorporates new findings in employment research as well as the latest techniques in test development and scoring. The WPT-R employment test takes only 12 minutes to complete. It is administered online or via pencil and paper fax answer sheet and automatically scored by Wonderlic. The WPT-R helps match job candidates with jobs where they can be effective and satisfied.
- The WPT-Q is a shorter version of the Wonderlic Personnel Test-Revised (WPT-R). It was designed to be used in pre-employment testing to estimate a candidate’s aptitude, or ability to perform a specific job. The WPT-Q can be used to screen candidates who are unlikely to have the cognitive ability necessary to succeed in a particular job.
- The CPP is a personality test that helps you hire, manage and motivate people for positions requiring significant client interaction such as customer service, telemarketing and sales. The CPP describes a candidate's personality in terms of workplace strengths and weaknesses, personality traits and personality types and can optimize person/job fit.
