January 28, 2021 I Operations
Sweetwater Announces $1 Billion in 2020 Revenue, Largest University Class Underway
The current class of 19 Sweetwater sales engineers is the largest ever. Two are not pictured.
Sweetwater, which recently announced that it officially crossed $1 billion in revenue in 2020, has announced the largest class of new sales engineers in company history. All 19 sales engineers, plus one sales apprentice, are participating in Sweetwater’s proprietary training program known as Sweetwater University. Members of the group moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Sweetwater is headquartered, from Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Sweetwater University originated in 1995 as a study group of people working to keep up with the latest gear and technology. The first official class was in 2001, and the curriculum has now expanded to a 13-week program with over 350 classes taught by more than 120 instructors. It’s designed to help new sales engineers build a foundation of knowledge not only about the gear they sell but to also give them the tools they need to run a successful business.
Classes cover every facet of the company’s operation, and graduates of Sweetwater University have a high level of expertise across all categories of music instruments, pro audio, and recording. Previously, the largest class consisted of 17 sales engineers. Sweetwater hired 123 sales engineers in 2020 and plans to hire an additional 160 this year.
“We are excited to welcome this new class of [sales engineers] to Sweetwater and look forward to continuing to add highly knowledgeable, caring and professional people to our team in the coming year,” said Jeff Radke, Sweetwater’s executive vice president and chief sales officer.
“Our team members are the most critical asset to making our customers’ musical dreams come true, and we were thankful to see this large new group of sales engineers choose Sweetwater as their career destination,” said Jeff Ostermann, Sweetwater’s chief people officer. “With the majority of these new sales engineers relocating from outside our region to join our team, it’s an excellent affirmation that Sweetwater and Fort Wayne continue to be a destination of choice for passionate and talented individuals from across the country and the world.”
