George Lagone, Principal
George has nearly two decades of experience working with business leaders to drive revenue growth and improve commercial performance. He partners with clients on sales effectiveness, developing growth strategies, deployment of sales teams, operating models, incentive compensation and talent strategy.
George works with clients in a variety of industries—including industrial, engineering, wholesale & distribution, defense, retail, consumer, fintech, and life sciences—helping organizations of all sizes develop and execute their growth strategies.
Experience
Prior to joining Axiom Consulting Partners, George was Director of Sales Compensation at Fiserv, a global leader in payments and Fintech. Before joining Fiserv, George spent nearly two decades leading client engagements that delivered measurable commercial improvement for the Sales Force Effectiveness practices at Korn Ferry Hay Group, ZS Associates, and Deloitte.
Notable Achievements
- Go-to-Market Transformation | Led sales role rationalization, sales force re-sizing, and territory alignment for a global travel industry client. Also defined new operating model/structure and sales roles to better manage existing customers and foster more new business development. His work was part of a top-down transformation of the client’s entire sales function which resulted in $7.5M of direct cost reduction and $80M of incremental sales.
- Omnichannel Retail Sales Incentives | Developed a novel sales incentive structure to align an in-store sales force’s behavior around a targeted omnichannel experience for a leading portfolio of retail brands. Designed and administered sales incentive pilots to identify the most effective way to drive sales and customer engagement across multiple brands.
- Strategic Account Management | Led design and implementation of a global strategic account management program for a PE-backed industrial testing client, which resulted in 42% YoY revenue growth for SAM accounts. Embedded two teams with the client to create SAM team structures, define roles, select talent, perform account planning, and monitor several pilot programs.
- Channel Definition | Increased revenue from top accounts by 40% for a $1.2B industrial supply wholesaler by re-segmenting the customer base and reducing the number field rep-covered accounts by 35%. Reduced cost of sales 25% for remaining accounts by shifting to inside sales team coverage.
Education
George earned his MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and his BS in Computer Science from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a WorldatWork Certified Sales Compensation Professional (CSCP).
