Nick Mehta

[Personal update]

On Saturday, my father passed away at the age of 78 after a multi-year struggle with cancer, dementia and Parkinson's disease.

I found out we were at the end as I was landing in Boston for my college reunion and was lucky to be able to fly back to SFO and be with my mom and brother for his last moments. While it was certainly sad, I would say the overwhelming feelings I had were gratitude, awe, love and joy.

In a previous era, my dad was a startup CEO and was known to always be giving speeches and making people laugh, even at his own expense. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. He was also incredibly generous and helped thousands of people in his lifetime. So much to learn from him.

When we were launching Gainsight, I would show the photo on the left to recall the time he took me and my brother to his office and taught us about how software companies work. While he probably wouldn't have known the term Customer Success, I'm sure he'd be a fan now. And though he didn't have his full faculties at the time, he actually joined my mom at Pulse 2022.

If you feel so inclined (and no pressure), feel free to donate to the Michael J Fox Foundation to support research around Parkinson's.

No matter what, hold your loved one close.

It always fires me up to see incredible #CustomerSuccess leaders rise to the challenge of paving the road ahead for our industry’s future. Like Geoffrey Moore became the herald for innovation in Silicon Valley many years ago with his book, Crossing the Chasm, Rod Cherkas is elevating the role of Chief Customer Officer to the forefront with his new book, The Chief Customer Officer Playbook.

Rod is the go-to person on how CCOs and aspiring CCOs can design and implement exceptional customer experiences to drive revenue growth and profitability for their companies. I don’t say this lightly.

Rod is someone I’ve called a colleague and friend for ten years, and I was honored and delighted to write the foreword for his book. The future of CCOs is something I’m also incredibly invested in; the book coincides with my ongoing conversation about their increasingly existential role in business. The book’s release coincides with efforts at Gainsight to help more leaders grow into successful CCOs in the future.

You see, now more than ever, customer-facing leaders need to differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive and challenging market. You must consistently demonstrate that the skills you possess and the strategies you apply translate into repeatable results for your organization.

➡ Here’s the question on everyone’s mind… How do you do this?

❗ Rod has done this, and he shares so many great insights ❗

When you read his book, you will learn 8 powerful strategies to deliver repeatable results in a predictable way. These strategies will enable you to identify, develop, and master the skills needed to be successful.💥

The ideas in Rod’s book are not just for technology start-ups and scale-ups. They are relevant for any customer-facing leader or executive across all types of industries and company sizes.

I’m talking about…

👉 CCOs and anyone who aspires to be a CCO someday
👉 Customer Success, PS/Implementation, Education, Customer Ops and Support Leaders 
👉 CEOs, CFOs, CROs, and other exec team members

If you fit into any of these categories, I highly recommend checking out THE CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER PLAYBOOK.

🔗 https://bit.ly/CCOPlaybook

As many of us decompress from the drama of an incredible Taylor Bowl 🏈(congrats Chiefs fans 👏🏽 and sad for 9er fans 😢), let’s talk about Taylor Swift and reinvention.

To go the distance in any job - whether as a world-changing pop star 🎤 or as a businessperson 🧳 - you need to constantly reinvent yourself to match what your company and the world need right now.

If you look at Taylor, she’s gone from
🎸 Young country singer (Debut, Fearless) to
💔 Country-pop ballads about breakups (Speak Now, Red) to
🎵 Reclaiming her identity with pop music (1989, Lover, Reputation) to
🏡 Channeling age and wisdom in folk songs (folklore, evermore) to
🎹 Tying it all together with synth pop (Midnights) to
💪🏾 Winning back her story and music (Taylor’s Versions)

Taylor has never let herself get predictable or stuck in a rut. And in business, we can’t either.

At Gainsight, one of our values is “Shoshin” (Beginner's Mind). The idea is if we always approach challenges as a beginner, we can always learn and grow.

Having done Gainsight for 11 years (!!!), I personally need to do this. The biggest risk to our company is me (“I’m the problem, it’s me”). If I approach being a CEO like I did last year, we can’t move forward. What does the company need from me now? What CEO does Gainsight need in 2024?

For me, I find reinvention from:
🤝 Meeting other leaders
💡 Reading about diverse industries and fields
❓ Questioning which assumptions still make sense now
🤔 Thinking about what we would do if we could start Gainsight from scratch today

BTW, this is what I love about #CustomerSuccess. It’s constantly about reinvention, as maddening as that can feel sometimes.

What are you doing to reinvent yourself at work right now?

P.S. In case you were wondering who I rooted for this past weekend...

On the (Continued) Lost Art of Face-to-Face Customer Meetings:

Jason M. Lemkin has written extensively about this but it's incredible how this still hasn't come back yet. It's the easiest move in B2B. Go see your customers and prospects.

I spoke to a startup founder recently (who's great). He asked about category creation and accelerating sales cycles. I said:

"How often does your team meet your clients face-to-face?"

He said "every now and then if they ask."

Early in Gainsight, when we just launched, we were a tiny company competing with other tiny companies. There was a publicly-traded software firm that was looking at tech for Customer Success and we heard they didn't even consider us. I sleuthed to figure out the decision maker and found one SUPER weak LinkedIn shared connection (my former EA).

I cold emailed the person referring to our common connection and told him I was going to be in his area later in the week and would love to meet. He said "sure - come by."

He was in Charleston, SC. I was in Palo Alto, CA. I immediately Googled how to get to the (lovely) city in SC and bought redeye tickets. Rolled off the plane, freshened up in the airport and met the prospect. Flew home. We ended up winning the deal and amazingly the company is a Gainsight client 13 years later, having spent collectively several million dollars.

My guess is no other vendor "happened to be in the area." That was the only reason we won.

Over the years, your product becomes the best, your brand is the leader, you have trust, etc.

In the early days, all you have is your willingness to get on a plane.