Christien Louviere
I have been in a business development role for my entire career and am now the head of sales for a technology company called Dukky. Sales allows me to do 3 things that I love:
- Perform – The highest level I achieved during my athletic career was as a walk-on for the LSU football team, of which I’m very proud. Once I decided that the NFL wasn’t a realistic future for me, I turned to the next best thing, sales. Being in sales is as close to being a professional athlete that most of us will ever achieve. Sales professionals are the direct line to the lifeblood of every organization. They are the players that determine the outcome of organizations.
- Build Relationships – I have always enjoyed learning about people and how they communicate. My dad brought me up on an Apple II computer during the day and took me to networking events for his company at night. I learned early the importance of making personal connections with people in business and in life.
- Be Free – You have to prepare in practice, but every competitor loves to be on the field making things happen! I get a rush from being on any playing surface because I never know how the script will go, and it’s solely up to me to navigate the best path to a victory. In business, this rush translates into the presentation. Whether I’m presenting to investors, customers or a social media panel, I have competitive streak in me that allows me to be the best in the room.
In any business, I believe EVERYONE is in sales. If you represent your company in any way, then you are the face of that company. I relate anything in business to sports and/or relationships and will do so on this blog. If you think you can prove me wrong on either of these, I would like to hear from you.
So what is this blog about?
I cover 2 general topics on my blog: the science behind Sales 2.0 (I hate that term BTW) and career issues facing Gen-Y. There have been and always will be generational issues in the world (if you don’t believe me, click here). Having said that, Gen-Y is about to takeover the world! However, unlike any other time in history, the rise of social, online and mobile media has allowed for the generations to collide, as they never have before. The business world used to resemble Mad Men
Now, there are 25 year-olds telling 25-year industry veterans what they plan to do with the company. I’m not interested in killing off older generations. I’m interested in showing people how to communicate successfully in today’s evolving world. This evolving world has led to two things:
1) Positive: Business is growing at an unprecedented rate and bringing people together from all over the world like never before!
2) Negative: Avoiding change ten years ago would get you killed in ten years. Avoiding change for ten minutes today will now get you killed by the time you’re finished reading this. Don’t believe me? When’s the last time you physically picked up a newspaper?
More Professional
Dukky: I am currently the VP of Channel Sales at this New Orleans based technology venture. Launched in May 2008 as an entirely new way to measure direct response advertising, Dukky is the groundbreaking new technology that allows brands to track and measure an individual’s brand influence via social media. My core responsibility is discussing partnership and devising go-to-market strategies with top-level management at brands and direct response agencies.
Brazen Careerist: This is a great site for members of any generation to get career advice or understand what goes on in the minds of Gen-Y. I’m happy to be a contributing author to Penelope Trunk’s brainchild. She has made me a better writer.
Connexxions Media Group: CMG is a consulting company that I launched to help organizations of all sizes solve generational communication issues and understand the art of personal branding. It is an over-used word and an under-utilized concept. I help individuals get noticed by companies and companies find quality candidates.
Prime Point Media: PPM allotted me my first opportunity into the digital space by combining Bluetooth advertising with outdoor advertising. It was an interesting business model at the time. In short, they owned the advertising rights to 90% of the pay phones that existed around the US and slapped a Bluetooth transmitter onto the bottom of them. They brought me in to help upstart the business model. In less than 1-year, I was able to increase sales by 65%. It’s amazing how eye grabbing those phones were with catchy ads on them.
Viacom / CBS Outdoor: Working for Sumner Redstone was my first full-time job out of college. I started in the New Orleans market and quickly realized my opportunity to move up was in revitalizing the marketing efforts to increase sales. I created an email list, so I could gauge the response rate; and then physically mailed out over 1,000 newsletters to our clients to measure the open rate. The result was that I surpassed my quota by 60%, received a promotion to the Atlanta market and was named to the Viacom National OOH (out-of-home) Marketing Council in New York. You may be asking yourself, why would he send out emails and physically send out newsletters? Touch base with me because it’s a good story!
Starbucks: Heard of them? Cool. I worked at the busiest store in the New Orleans area slinging espresso to the business crowd and graduate students. I worked nights while I was at Viacom Outdoor. Why? I networked with business owners at night, so I could sell them billboards the next day…sales 2.0!
Lamar Corporation: Lamar is a massive outdoor advertising company located in Baton Rouge. They were kind enough to give me my first real internship working in real estate. I learned a great deal there about understanding how numbers work in business, specifically related to M&A activity. I also learned that I couldn’t sit inside all day, so I jumped into sales.
Awards & Achievements
2010 Graduate of the Georgia State University MBA Program (Expected)
2006 Fellow of the Loyola University Institute of Politics
2005 Viacom Outdoor National All-Star Winner (Top 1%)
More Personal
Favorite Quote: “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
-Teddy Roosevelt
My Quote: “Don’t try to be like your hero. Beat him.” -Me
Undergrad: LSU, Political Science
Short-Term Goal: Make Dukky run like a well-oiled sales machine
Long-Term Goal: To be made fun of on Family Guy or South Park
Best Thing in My Life: Family
FANatical Of: LSU Athletics, New Orleans Saints, New Orleans Hornets, Atlanta Braves
Favorite Cuisine: Cajun
Favorite Wine: Cabernet
Favorite City That Isn’t New Orleans: New York
Favorite Book: The Lords of Discipline
Favorite Play: Anything Neil Simon
Favorite Writers: Roald Dahl & Michael Connelly
Coolest Place I’ve Traveled: Mauritius
Favorite Video Game (All-Time): Tie Between Warcraft II and Oregon Trail II
Favorite TV Show (All-Time): Seinfeld
Favorite DVR’d Shows (Current): Dexter, True Blood, Californication, Family Guy, The Office, Mad Men
Favorite Movie (All-Time): Somewhere b/n Boiler Room -- Dumb & Dumber – Gladiator – Reservoir Dogs -- Scent of a Woman – Swingers
Favorite Bands: Shinedown, DMB, Jack Johnson, Eminem, Kenney Chesney…on and on
Favorite US Hotel: New Orleans Hilton Riverside So much of my life has been spent there: as an employee, helping during hurricanes and having a good time.
Favorite International Hotel – Grand Mauritian Resort & Spa
- My wife makes me laugh / smile with almost no effort.
- I am constantly doing whatever it takes to be ahead of the curve.
- I live in Atlanta, but my heart is always in New Orleans.
- PS3 always releases my mind and make me look at things in a different light.
- Give me a ball, and I can play all day!
