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.