“SaaS Customers Have Never Been Happier”: A Discussion with Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight

Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, and I caught up ahead of their Pulse Product conference.  It was an A+ conversation on, in particular, how to do product extensions and sell a second product, and where product development overall is today:

A few take aways:

Why extend a top brand in customer success into product?

If nothing else, Customer Success professionals wanted it.  They wanted more insight and impact on the product itself.

How have you sold 2 different products to the same customer base?  What’s best, 1 sales team or 2?

We’ve gone back and forth, from 2 to 1 and back to 2.  The key now is an overlay of experts than know Gainsight PX cold.  It’s a complex question.  When existing customers buy a second product, they often don’t want to be “sold” per se.

How do you cross-sell multiple products in SaaS?

One of the most interesting learnings is around customers that aren’t totally happy.  The happy ones always want to take a call to learn what else you offer.  But the ones that believe in you, but haven’t fully gotten there yet in a deployment, sometimes are just as receptive.  It might be your second product is just what they need to unlock the most value from the first one.  We’ve seen that a lot.

Are customers happier in 2020 and 2021?

Yes.  Look at all the SaaS and Cloud IPOs.  We see 130%-140%+ net retention all the time now.  Customers are happier.