Company: Toco Warranty, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: Toco Warranty offers month-to-month breakdown protection against vehicle breakdowns. Toco’s easy, affordable, & stress-free solutions shield customers from unpredictable disruptions, protecting their assets, families, and budgets. Toco's emphasis on customer satisfaction, company culture, and community outreach creates an industry-leading experience and legacy that goes beyond the point of sale.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Sales Training or Education Professional of the Year
 Nomination Title: Paul McGee
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2021 of the nominated individual, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Briefly describe the nominated individual: history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 199 words used.
Paul McGee is the Executive Vice President at Toco Warranty, an industry leader in providing Vehicle Service Contracts (AKA extended auto warranty). Paul's influence on the organization began as a Customer Service Manager his ascension to EVP is a direct result of his passion, strategic mind, and never-ending commitment to customer and employee success.
Under Paul's guidance, the organization has become the highest overall rated provider of Vehicle Service Contracts, besting all competitors on BBB, Consumer Affairs, and Trustpilot. Toco’s commitment to its core value, “Do Right By Customers, Colleagues, and Company”, guides every decision from the top brass to the front-line agent, ensuring that the employee experience translates to a great customer experience.
In 2022, Paul took over the Sales Training and Development department and revolutionized it into a more efficient, effective, and accountable program that focused beyond foundation training and set employees up for long-term success. Paul has an MBA and a Bachelor's degree in education. His ability to bring his pedagogy into the corporate training world creates a training program that incorporates multiple learning styles (audio, visual, kinetic, reading & writing, and Multimodal) into the training so that employees find their way along the easiest path.
- Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2021 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 251 words used.
Toco Warranty converts leads amongst digital and traditional marketing efforts, historically averaging a customer acquisition cost of $383 (2017-2021). The elements making up this number include lead costs (differing by source), and lead/sale conversion rate (based on agent performance). From 2022-2023, Toco’s new training program influenced agent behaviors, converted more customers into sales and reduced customer acquisition costs by 59%, reducing customer acquisition costs to $227.
Historically
Toco sales hiring was performed by a sales manager, interviewing candidates using standard questions. The decision to hire was a “gut feeling”, based upon the manager’s discretion. The new employee performed two weeks of foundation training and was put onto the sales floor to succeed (or fail). This approach failed Toco’s core value of "Make Each Other Win" because it failed to provide the support agents needed for long-term success. This leads to employee turnover, customer frustration, and most importantly, lost sales.
Toco’s NEW Sales Training program focused on three aspects:
“Loved the no pressure straight forward competitive pricing vs other warranty companies haggling prices during the call. Very thorough conversation into the warranty plan without the hoopla of, "Buy this today from us". I would recommend Toco over the competitors just for the fact they were calm and considerate.” - Arron L
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 198 words used.
Year Over Year Metrics:
- Sales
- Increased sales conversion from 38% to 47%, resulting in $489,062 additional sales revenue. (YOY)
- 143% improved Customer Acquisition Cost (YOY)
- 2021- 2022= Every $1 spent in Lead Cost resulted in $1.61 Revenue
- 2022- 2023= Every $1 spent in Lead Cost resulted in $3.78 Revenue
- Customer Service
- Improved CSAT scores 74.3% to 87.8% (YOY)
- Improved Customer Retention from 33.6% to 42.9% (YOY)
- Reduced call Handle Time by 13% (YOY)
- Employee
- Employee growth
- 97.6% New Hire satisfaction survey rating
- 72.58% reduction in recruiting costs (YOY)
- Employee Retention 96.65% (a 3.68% YOY increase)
- Length of Service increased to 8.68 years (an increase from 7.43% YOY)
- Decreased employee turnover by 16.4% (YOY)
Thank you for reviewing Toco's submission for “Sales Training or Education Professional of the Year". We believe this entry outlines a culmination of successful program architecture, training, implementation, and results that justify the awarding of this individual. We believe this submission provides a high-level overview of Toco's company and products, mission/values/vision, YOY achievements, employee & customer experience, industry comparison, challenges overcome, and supportive hyperlinks/ metrics/ attachments as evidence of our success.
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
“Your position has been terminated. HR will be speaking with you now to discuss your final paycheck.”
Heartbreak. Disappointment. Frustration. These do not even begin to describe the myriad of feelings that go on when letting go of an employee or a group of employees. Any termination (for cause or for company directive) is one of the hardest tasks a manager must perform. It should be hard. This affects the employee, their family, and all those who are remaining at the company. The hardest days for a manager are those when accountability has reached its end and parting ways with an employee must be done.
How did this happen?
How did it get to this point?
"It was Q3 in 2020 when the pandemic was in full force and Toco was not meeting our goals and we had to perform a 15-person layoff. I took it personally like I failed them all. It was in that moment of reflection that I knew this could never happen again and it sparked a new journey for Toco’s training and coaching program, spurring a revolution to optimize hiring, training, and employee development." - Paul McGee, Executive Vice President
Toco Warranty sells Vehicle Service Contracts, commonly called extended auto warranties, that prevent out-of-pocket expenses for customers seeking relief from expensive and often unexpected vehicle repair costs. In 2020 the pandemic was in full force. People were not driving as often due to lockdowns and tightening market conditions, so there was little risk of a breakdown. Funds were being conserved by consumers for the holidays and no one knew what the pandemic would bring. In retrospect, it was not as much a failure of leadership but more a change in the market that led to Toco's downsizing, but its impact was felt and acted upon.
Toco has since recovered from the pandemic, landed some large partnerships, and expanded into new revenue streams prompting rapid growth. Toco's employee count is now larger than it was at the reference Q3 2020 numbers pre-layoff. However, the lessons learned have not been forgotten.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 225 words used.
Toco implemented PRIOR, bringing a more sophisticated approach to hiring, onboarding, and continued agent education. Agent success has created improved employee retention (decreased turnover by 16.4%), sales conversion (18.61% to 30.14%), and CSAT scores (74.3% to 87.8%).
SPIN, a methodology created by Neil Rackman, created a consultative sales process. Much like a Doctor needs to evaluate and diagnose prior to offering a prescription, Toco agents need to understand and evaluate the customer and their situation prior to offering Toco’s product as a solution.
VIBE is a unique way to overcome customer objections, allowing the customer to be heard, empathized with, and directed to close in a fashion that is consultative and personal. In sales, we have all had a prospect give us an objection that we overcome only to have another objection arise. This happens over and over until one of the parties is exhausted and quits the sale. The VIBE method allows agents to collect all objections at once prior to attempting to solve any of them.
This Sales Training strategy has also been implemented on the customer service side at Toco, increasing employee retention, customer satisfaction, and revenue. Customers who call to cancel their contracts are met with a consultative approach that opens them up to discussion about solutions that solve pain points over denied claims and finances.
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