Louis Grenier

Stand The F*ck Out

Everyone says stand out, but how?

You can stand the f*ck out. Yes, even in the marketing industry. I help folks working in digital, creative services, advertising, consulting, or PR, who want to stand the f*ck out without selling their soul.

* Freelance marketers
* In-house marketers
* Creative business owners (aka reluctant marketers)

Founder

Learn modern positioning strategies for agencies tired of blending in.

- Cohort-based course starts: 20 May 2025 at 11:00 AM CT
- Length: Two sessions per week for two weeks
- Cost per seat: $999

Register here: https://link.stfo.io/cxlcohort

Course Instructor

EveryoneHatesMarketers.com

Everyone Hates Marketers changed my life in so many ways. It helped me to connect with folks I admired. It helped me get a job in tech after burning out running my first marketing agency. And it still teaches me so much about our craft.

It's the only marketing podcast for people sick of marketing b*llshit. It's a Top 1% podcast with nearly 2M downloads. Also, 25,000+ followers across podcast platforms. More than 3,000 downloads per episode.

Podcaster

900.care

Advisor

Leadsie

Personal Trainer Development Center

LatinUs Beauty LLC

Hotjar

I was hired to lead the Content Marketing function but nearly got the sack after spending my time designing pretty slides instead of getting leads. Once I got my sh*t together, we grew SEO traffic 10x from ~20k to ~200k/month and first-touch sign-ups from 0 to ~1k/month. We also launched a fun little podcast called 'The Humans Strike Back.'

I then moved on to Product Marketing and repositioned Hotjar from 'all-in-one analytics & feedback' to 'behavior analytics,' making it the complement to traditional web analytics. We ran multiple experiments to test the new positioning, generating big uplifts in accounts created (mainly from the homepage).

My proudest project was the launch of the Hotjar Lightning Talks. Most virtual events are super boring, sales-y, and loOoOong. So, we took a risk and did something different. A 5-day virtual event for ecommerce folks, with 5 talks a day, but 5 minutes (!!!) each. Thousands of people registered. It was really fun to go against the grain on this one.

Content & Product Marketer

Phorest Salon Software

Slices Consulting

My first marketing agency. I burnt out within 18 months trying to "educate the market" about services they didn't want.

Burnout Founder

Bonjour bonjour, I’m Louis Grenier, a recovering Frenchman who helps marketers to stand the f*ck out.

You can stand the f*ck out. Yes, even in the marketing industry. You can find your people and position what you do in a way that feeds your soul. You can build a resilient business and have fun—without working 40 hours a day. You can land some amazing opportunities because your message is so clear, unique, and appealing to the right people. You can stand the f*ck out without bouncing from tactic to tactic, hoping it will work.

It's just that there are no shortcuts, no secrets, no growth hacks to get you there—because, if it was easy, everyone would do it. 

In other words, standing the f*ck out is meant to be hard.

I'm just hoping I could make your journey a tad more enjoyable. Whenever you're ready, there are three ways I can help you:

🤘 Subscribe to my daily emails (Mon-Fri) and get advanced positioning, branding, & lead gen tips.
🤘 Work with me privately via 1-to-1 coaching.
🤘Enroll in my training to help your clients Stand The F*ck Out or make your marketing team sniff the same glue.

Drop me a DM!!

Nice things people say about me/my work:

"The positioning GOAT." Harry Dry, creator of MarketingExamples.com

"Louis's work flipped my struggling company from losing money to profiting close to two million dollars in a year. Because of him, we stopped copying others and figured out how to forge our own path to stand out." - Jonathan Goodman, best-selling author, Founder of the PTDC

"Louis is a force to be reckoned with. Give him a product, a bunch of users, and a market opportunity and he will quickly identify the positioning gap—and work quickly to fill it. I should know; I worked with him on a project just like this for a €30M+ ARR SaaS brand. Louis is to positioning what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners—synonymous." - Sançar Sahin, former VP of Marketing at Typeform & Hotjar

Louis Grenier 🤘

F*ck it, it's nearly Xmas, so I've got something (very) generous:

DM me with your postal address and I'll send you a FREE copy of my book. And, if you're in-house, I'll send copies to your colleagues, too.

There's no catch, it's a great book, I'm proud of it, so the more people read it, the better.

Offer ends when I fall asleep in my shed... I mean, "garden office." I also reserve the right to NOT send it if I have to pay $50+ for shipping (or for any other reason). Don't @ me.

And yes, I can absolutely be bribed if you want to make sure I don't forget about you. Just drop a little like or comment, you know how it does be.

🧡

Stand The F*ck Out | Dad, marketing troll, contrarian, husband, author, bowel cancer survivor

Luzmo

Boost the growth by leveraging marketing and demand gen.

VP of Growth

ACTITO

I didn't put my update as I'm learning that job for one year with direct coaching from our founders, VPs, and country managers. (I will write about the why more in-depth)

I believe you need to show before getting the title, and let's be honest... I learn every single day, still make many mistakes, but focus on getting our clients and market always at the center.

My biggest challenge his building a team that is remote as that is part of our value proposition — technology with people. And as a defender of personalization, you can only apply it by feeling the market.

You can read about the four pieces on what I'm working in my first post for 2020 (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sunday-writing-before-heading-back-work-start-2020-jonathan-wuurman/)

One: Keep building the Actito Brand.
Two - Website upgrades 
Three: Actito on Tour
Four, indirect channel

I will update this from time to time.

VP Marketing 

The ambition of Actito is always the same since 2000 empower marketers to deliver outstanding experiences to customers by Activating data at every right moment of clients' journeys.  

Our conviction is that Europe is an alternative to other international offers. The specification of the European market that puts more importance on data privacy, the complexity of the fragmented market due to different languages, legislation is making it a no brainer.

 I have been on a journey since 2014, helping the different country managers with the first steps when opening a new market. That could go from an in-depth demonstration of what our platform could offer to more complex RFPs.

 I have learned a lot by doing this as you support the C level in building something a market presence.  

I will always remember those first days with Marc Désenfant country manager France running the subway to take up to four meetings in a day. And I'm personally very proud that I could help him in those first meetings and be a small part of the French Success.  

After France, it was time to help our friends in the Netherlands. We did strategic hiring with Jule  Pieters Country Manager Netherlands, previously country manager Adobe.   

The Dutch market is very different from what we encounter in the past. It was again learning but thanks to our offer and true agility we were able to sign some notable brands, for example, Campina, Novonoridsk, and ABB is still client 7 years later.  

In 2017, it was the Canada adventure that starts with Aleksandra Logist. They are one of the fastest-growing markets. The opportunities are tremendous oversee and that European touch is what they are looking for. I will be actively collaborating with Aleks in 2020 to support our growth.  

June 2018 United Kingdom and Spain increased our market presence. It's still a bit early, and if you want to know more about this, check our article about the acquisition of SmartFocus.

Support to company internationalization in Europe and North America 

Role:  
- Acting as a middle man between market needs, product needs and expectations and our engineering team.  
- Supporting our Business Developers for the tear 3. Mainly during the sales process by providing expertise for RFP, Demonstration, Workshops, ...  
- Developing the tear 2 from hunting to farming, to retention 
  
Some major commercial successes:
- SNCB become a client where I supported the full industrial process directly with the business unit manager and one of our founders. We compete versus the major players in our category, but our humble human approach made the difference. We started in a rough period with them, but I'm proud to say that six years later, they are still one of our major clients, feeding the roadmap map, testing new functionalities, pushing us to grow. The quote "start small think big" is our reality with them.  

- I was at the origin of one of the most significant customer signature at that time with Carrefour Belgium. We won this because of our Agility mindset and offer. The first campaigns went out four weeks after the signature. That may seem easy, but shifting big corporation to real agile process focused on delivering quick value and learnings is a challenge we did achieve.  

- ABB is a success in the sense that we were rollout Actito in the Benelux in a few weeks bringing the communication to the next level. They were so happy about it that we roll it out to seven countries with more than 25 users around the world.   

- Wallonia Brussels Tourisme was a similar story as ABB with a roll out in five countries. The major success came from the fact of the brand alignment in all the countries, that cross-sharing experience was now possible bringing five countries to one major Marketing/Marcom team  

Learnings as an evangelist 
You should be able to listen, understand and help customers' 
You are the voice of the customers you feed the roadmap
You must  help management fine-tune the offering and strategies

Actito Evangelist

As our tear 2 is snowballing, we need more people to deliver our promise, "Technology with outstanding human support."   

The first mission was to build a team of highly agile and customer focus team. With the country manager, we made a team of five that was up and running in less than six months.     

The second part of my role was to increase the velocity and learning curve of our staff. The approach was to share the experience I built during those years so they could steal it and make their own story with it.  

Understanding how Actito works is one thing; putting it in perspective to help our clients achieve their objectives is something different. That was the key to client retention.   

At Actito, our CLTV (customer live time value) is 7 years. That allows us to be very proactive and close to our clients; we are on a marathon, not a sprint.  

With the country manager, we introduced the client journey at Actito, resulting in 5  phases our clients are running through. Setup, onboard, value, extra value, retention.  

That was the first part of the CSM playbook  

We also introduce the notion of QBR (Quarterly Business Reviews). Those are four moments during the year that our CSMs meet their clients with one single rule. Help them become superheroes in their organization by overdelivering on their objectives.  

Our conviction is that with our people and our technology, we can help any organization embraces Activation Marketing.  

Check what they say about us onG2:  
"Un outil agréable à utiliser quotidiennement, avec une équipe réactive à nos besoins" 
"Marketing automation and beyond" 
"The best marketing automation tool ever "

CSM (Customer Succes Manager)  Manager - Tear 2

The market is changing; with the rise of technology, more and more businesses understand that technology was part of the equation. The autonomy of their people was an essential element for success. Investing in his team, making them highly agile and flexible to be able to cope with the highly demanding market, was the only way to win client attention.  
  
For our Belgium and Luxemburg market, we decided to join forces of our tear 2 and tear 3 teams. That provides us more expertise under one unit.   
With our senior profiles that develop activation strategies with our clients' for more than a decade, we could start leveraging that for our tear 2 clients.  
Result in a direct ARR impact by upselling and cross-selling our existing portfolio with highly valuable tactics for our clients. Win-Win is the word.  
  
Our tear 3 could benefit from our platform experts, allowing them to find faster ways to test an assumption before building and starting expensive projects.  
   
My roles 
	•	Guaranty cross-sharing expertise within the team.  
	•	Building playbooks with the team to make our tactics repeatable  
	•	Maintain a high level of curiosity to develop every profile of the team  
	•	Focus on the business KPIs but also qualitative (retention and client satisfaction)  
  
With a team of four business developers, we managed to increase the existing ARR by 30%.   
Some of our key wins were MaxiToys, Worldline, Cameleon, Hubo, Cine Tele Revue  
 
 
Customer voice on G2: 
Hubo 
"A complete email tool for all our email communication." 
 
Cine Tele Revue 
"Actito améliore l’efficacité et la productivité des équipes marketing" 
 
Cameleon 
"Marketing Automation made easy to non-technical users."

Sales Manager BeLux +  

Actito is into the Saas industry since 2000. We served two different types of clients and many different markets; in our jargon, we call it tear 2 and tear 3.  

Tear 2 is better known under Mid-market. Our definition is market with an active operational marketing team that is seeking to leverage technology on their own with a direct impact on the business. We called this Saas/SWS (software with service) because they were hands-on on the Actito platform; our mission was to help them explore all the value of our technology.  

Tear 3 is is what we called the PaaS, consider it as enterprise deal

 Due to our highly scalable and flexible platform and our Agile DNA, we can answer both markets. 

I went from "member of a team of three (Business unit manager, Technical ninja and myself) to a group of five  with as focus to make sure we had happy customer, decent product feedbacks to develop our offer and guaranty client satisfaction,

We had to develop new business by hunting, we hired a hybrid profile that could take care of existing clients to build his knowledge close with our clients — allowing him to leverage that in sales processes.   

We were with the five of us taking care of 40% of our clients and a decent part of our ARR.  

We commit ourselves to ensure Customer success through Agile Product and Services with the necessary human touch to make our client superheroes.  

==> That resulted in new happy clients: SRWT/TEC, BeCreative, Connections, Maison Blavier, etc  

As a manager,   
- I share my expertise with my team to help them learn fast and acquire the necessary skills to provide top service.   
- I coach and challenge them to get those extra miles with our customers, train our client to become superheroes.
- I listen to them; they are the voice of our clients.   
- I try to act as a servant leader making their job more comfortable and more impactful  

"Team is everything"

G2: 
Connections: "Excellent email and automation platform with a + for the team"

SaaS Team Manager - Tear 2 

Citobi is a Belgian company that provides CRM solutions since 2010. Born SaaS, we are on a mission to offer marketers (operators and managers) and technical profiles the best technology to close the gap between brands and customers by leveraging personalization in time, offers and channels.   

The unique value proposition is a combination of human support and providing our powerful marketing platform Actito.   

  
My role in a nutshell :  
Acting as the middle man on business, account as technical topics. Make it happen by connecting the different client departments and our teams to make it a success.  

My main tasks:
- Making sure the client perceives the value of the investment within the first weeks by coordinating the implementation process but also the training and future expansion plans.   
- Brainstorming session to identify new opportunities to develop the existing business and guaranty continuous investment.  
- Demonstrate the ROI on the technological investment but also the continuous support  
- Guaranty customers stratification by being the first line support.  
- Being the customer's voice internally   
- Confirming and executing the sales proposal. 

Reported directly to the business unit manager and the Co-Founders  

Some Brands and Projects I supported:    
- Walter Kluwer, operational support to the marketing team to deploy an online training program. Introduction of different newsletters to support promotion to the member, but also focusing on prospects.   
- Renmans, actively working on campaign management. Provide right sourcing support in peak moments to guaranty the business impact and continuity.   
- Launch of the BBQ project. It resulted in a direct increase in the value of bbq consumers drastically by leveraging the right level of promotion.    
- LyondellBasell helps them reduce paper campaign by transforming a catalog in an interactive newsletter.

Account Manager at Actito Belgium (formerly know as Citobi)

SaaStock

About
Throughout the year, SaaStock Local Brussels will be sharing resources with the community through quarterly, highly-focused events in Belgium. Our mission: to help SaaS founders, execs, investors, and startups get traction, growth, and scale. 

City Leader: Jenny Bjorklof

Already two events launched in 2019 and more to come in 2020

1. SaaStock Local: Growth Strategies - LAUNCH event
Speakers: Guillaume Moubeche | Lemlist, Lien De Leenheer | Frankly Speaking, Jorim Rademaker | Manuel.to, Nataliia Deineha and Haroen Vermylen | Cumul.io, Sebastien Darte | T&C, Thierry Vermeiren | Workero
Sponsors: Blendr.io, Actito, Workero

https://local.saastock.com/events/details/saastock-brussels-presents-saastock-local-brussels-growth-strategies-launch-event/

2. SaaStock Local: Best Practices for Talent Acquisition
Speakers: Eva Maertens | Teamleader, Jan Devos | LinkedIn
Sponsors: Blendr.io, Actito, Teamleader, Djar, Zoho

https://local.saastock.com/events/details/saastock-brussels-presents-best-practices-for-talent-acquisition/

Maybe?
- Interested in speaking at one of our Belgian events? 
- Want to join us as a partner to showcase your company to 50+ Belgian founders and execs?

Co-Organizer SaaS Local Brussels

IHECS Academy

I have a passion for marketing and one of the most accessible channels is email marketing.

I have been asked by IHECS to share my expertise with small groups of highly motivated people looking to boost their career possibilities by adding new skills to their profile.

The course was about Emailing and Newsletter. I split it into different sessions allowing the students to acquire a global vision about the engagement marketing jargon and possibilities.
But also a more hands-on part, allowing them to experiment through real cases.

I had the chance to share this with four groups of great students with whom I still have contacts today. I believe that we should all do some teaching/sharing as this helps structure our knowledge but keep us also down to earth with the reality of the market. 

Average NPS 8.6

More info: https://www.ihecs-academy.be/ihecs-academy/

Marketing Automation Expert - Visiting Professor - Training: Emailing and Newsletter

I have a passion for marketing for nearly e decade, IHECS asked me to share my expertise with students applying for certification in communication.

Compare to the other training; we go more into the tactics and strategies that make the difference.

The students were very keen to learn more about:
- How to win customer engagement
- How to craft a customer experience that has a true impact on the business.
- Which data to focus on
- What is the legislation around data privacy - GDPR
- Which tools are available, and how to choose what is right for my organization, my challenges.

Of course, we put this in action with hands-on exercise to make sure they could leverage that directly in their careers.

I had the chance to share this with two groups, up to know it stays one of my favorite experiences and would highly recommend to everybody to spend time sharing his knowledge with motivated students.

Curious about their courses have a look at their offer: https://www.ihecs-academy.be/ihecs-acade

Marketing Automation Expert - Visiting Professor - Certification Communication

Lycamobile Group

Lycamobile an MVNO  part of the Lycatel Group. They provide high-quality international calls through to the Mobistar network. Fasted growing telecom company since its inception in June 2007, they have an install base of more than 800 000 clients in Belgium and a presence in more than ten countries. 

I am acting as a Key Account Manager reporting directly to the Country Manager.  

My primary commercial responsibilities: 
• Maintaining and enhancing high levels of customer service. 
• Recurrent contacts and sales actions with Professional Distributors such as Conway, Trendy Foods, Alvadis, Lyfra, Sitagro, and some ethnic distributors 

My primary accounting responsibilities: 
• Meeting and exceeding preset targets for identifying, pursuing, and converting new business opportunities to create a profitable and sustainable business.
• Developing new opportunities to extend our market reach via relevant retailers or shop/brand owners

My primary marketing responsibilities: 
• Understanding key segmentation, delivering new customer insight, and developing sales strategies. 
• Developing Marketing Strategies “ethnic marketing” to increase visibility and notoriety.
• Negotiation of marketing Budget with partners. 

My main commercial and accounting achievements:
• Creation, negotiation with Telecom Manager from major retail players such as Media Markt and Fnac: 
• Develop local partnerships with networks such as White Night, Night and Day, ... increasing our sales but also our market presence.

Marketing  achievements:
• The rollout of a full rebranding within our main partners and night shops.  
Successfully implement brand activation actions within our partners and resellers 
• Launch of a partnership with Image/Selection, which increased the presence of Lycamobile in more than 1200 shops.

Key Account Manager - Indirect Channels

Clearwire

Clearwire is a company that provides Internet connexion through a highly innovative technology called Wimax (radio waves), allowing end-users to enjoy a super fast internet in one appointment. No need waiting weeks to connect your home to the supplier network; a simple electrical plug is all you need.

They started with Brussels as the main city but quickly extended to other cities and are now available in Gent, Leuven, Vilvoorde, Aalst. The actual customer database is about 14.000 clients.

I started as a sales representative and quickly evolved into a Teamleader role, reporting directly to the sales manager.

My main responsibilities:
Coaching and managing the sales representatives on a daily base.
• Leading and managing a team of 15 direct sales by helping them reaching targets in the B2C market. 
• Coaching them on the full sales cycle, from identifying and finding new leads (mainly calling and referral programs) to active negotiation and closing.
• Close active field management to improve the quality of each of us. 
• Daily reporting and establishment of weekly meetings. 

Building the premise of the indirect channel.
• Responsible for Fnac and the launch of our shops (Rue Neuve and Gent), operational sales chief department. 
• In charge of the several independents' shops acting as a Key account by giving them the right supports to boost and increase sales. 
• Reporting directly to the Sales Manager.

Main achievements:
• Become a Teamleader within six weeks by crushing personal targets and bringing knowledge to my colleagues
• The best-performing country in February by excelling the target.

Learned lessons:
• You are nothing without a team.
• KPIs are the key to great business.
• Technology needs to be understood and taught to bring value to your customers.

Team Leader of 15 B2C Direct Sales 

A.S. MOBILITY

A.S Mobility (formerly ARWAC) provides a wide range of car equipment: handsfree, alarm, audio, ... Active in the B2B, our mission is to provide the best solution to increase productivity, security, and driver satisfaction.
 
Acting as a Business Developer with the responsibility of identifying new potential lease partners but also direct clients. Farming the existing portfolio by finding new products and solutions to their needs.

Reporting directly to the founder and leading a team of 10 technicians to guarantee our high-quality standards.

Main leasing clients: LeasePlan, KBC Autolease, ING Lease, Arval, Athlon Car Lease, Alphabet.
Some direct clients: Bristol-Myers, Quintiles, VW Bruynseels, ING.

Learned lessons:
- Applying the different courses was the key to success: AIDA, spin selling, building powerpoint decks.
- Being a trilingual profile is a significant advantage to handle business in Belgium.
- Always look for someone that you can learn from.

Fleet Manager B2B

Making marketing an essential part of company growth I Public speaker I Activation lover

TL,DR ==> Book 30 minutes, and let's enjoy a virtual coffee https://insights.luzmo.com/meetings/jonathan-wuurman

"Always be curious, never stop learning” is my motto and actually applies to marketing strategies too. 

Over the years and after a decade in marketing, but also sales and product management, I built up a passion for helping marketers leverage digital technology to provide outstanding customer experiences. 

With my marketing team, I aim at educating and making sure that every marketer becomes a superhero of activation marketing.

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The Battle

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