Case Study: Sonic Automotive increases sales and reduces turnover with SHL candidate assessments

Sonic Automotive boosts sales by $79M with SHL

Sonic Automotive, a major automotive retailer and Fortune 500 company, partnered with vendor SHL to address a significant hiring challenge. Their new customer-centric sales model required a different type of salesperson, moving away from aggressive "sales sharks" to find candidates who were good listeners and strong customer advocates. They needed an efficient hiring process to support this change and reduce high employee turnover.

SHL provided a customized solution, working with Sonic to define new job profiles and implement a series of weighted pre-hire assessments for skills, competencies, and company fit. The results were substantial: high scorers on the SHL assessments sold an average of 48 more cars per year, translating to a projected $79 million annual revenue increase. The solution also reduced time-to-hire and contributed to a significant drop in employee turnover, with new hires showing a turnover rate of only 1.5%.

Sonic Automotive