203. How to Stand Out in a Crowded CS Hiring Market (Without a CS Background) ft. Katy Bone (Gainsight)

So I sent my bathroom proposal on how hiring me would benefit the company. And really quickly just hit send. And then I thought I was going to get sick that I just sent a bathroom proposal to executives at Gainsight.

Josh Schachter:
You’re listening to Unchurned, brought to you by the Gainsight Podcast Network. Subscribe to our substack@ Unchurned.Gainsight.com where we go deep on every episode. Like how one post sales team at cloudbeds built over 150 AI agents. That story and more at unchurned.gainsight.com hello, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Unchurned. I’m your host, Josh Schachter, senior vice president of strategy and go to market development at Gainsight. And I am thrilled to be introducing this bonus episode with Katy Bone, Enterprise customer success manager at Gainsight. Katy, thank you so much for being on the program and welcome.

Katy Bone:
Yes, thank you. Thank you for having me, Josh.

Josh Schachter:
So we’re going to talk a little bit of like a day in the life of a CSM at Gainsight, and maybe even more so about your origin story of getting to the company because it wasn’t necessarily a conventional CS background. Although, as I say that I don’t think any CS background is conventional in the first place. So first, tell us a little bit about your role at Gainsight. You know, enterprise csm. What does that mean? What’s the segment and type of customer that you support?

Katy Bone:
Yeah, so enterprise CSM at Gainsight. So that means I have customers that their total ARR is typically over 100, 100,000. My total book of business is about 5 million supporting, gosh, about 20 customers right now. So that is. And then we support customers that have, you know, all of our different products here at Gainsight, which is really, really fun and makes for a very different day. Every day is different.

Josh Schachter:
A very special setup to support five products as a csm.

Katy Bone:
Yes, definitely not easy, but who doesn’t love a good challenge?

Josh Schachter:
Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so. And you’ve been with the company about a year and a half now.

Katy Bone:
Yeah.

Josh Schachter:
You didn’t, you weren’t in CS prior to joining Gainsight, and so you’ve like, you’re like, great, if I’m going to do the CS thing, I’m I’m going to, like, go big or go home. I’m just going to join the mothership, the category creator. You know, forget, like, leveling up towards that. I love it. Tell us about that story. Tell us about what you’re doing before Gainsight, and then we can talk about how you got into the company.

Katy Bone:
Yeah, I still can’t believe it. So I knew I wanted to tap into sas. Was talking to one of my friends who actually works at Gainsight, Dave Green, and he’s like, Katy, you should be a csm. And because I was looking at all the different roles and, you know, when you look on LinkedIn, you look on, you know, indeed all the different places, there’s so many different titles. And I’m like, okay, I’m not going to be an engineer. Um, like, what am I going to do? So he told me that. So then I started researching and I was like, oh, I. I want to work at Gainsight.

Katy Bone:
And, you know, I had a few friends in the field that laughed and were like, okay, good. Good luck with that. And I was like, okay, well, persistence is, you know, I feel what made

Josh Schachter:
you want to work there at that time.

Katy Bone:
It’s, you know, you. You know, you hear of Nick Mehta, you hear of. I love the childlike joy, the Shoshan. Like, honestly, a lot of their core values that I saw on LinkedIn really caught my eye. You could tell it was really fun. I also loved that a lot of the people lived here locally in St. Louis. And, you know, when you think of customer success, you think of Gainsight.

Katy Bone:
And so that’s where I thought, if I’m going, if I’m going to do this, that’s where I’m going. That’s where I’m going to work. It wasn’t that easy, though, because I started in, say, I started looking at companies like in April several years ago, you know, and I didn’t even start at Gainsight until the following year, the next year in February. So almost a year of me kind of like poking around, look, you know, looking. I bought the customer success book, all the Things. So that’s kind of where I fell in love with cs. And it really, to me, lined up with my background. So I have a dual master’s degree in counseling, so I can do therapy and then school counseling as well.

Katy Bone:
And that’s what I did for like 15 years. And I was at the same company for 12 years, so it definitely not traditional at all to say. And obviously I didn’t just apply at Gainside and get the job I had to apply at many, many places. You know, lots of rejection, lots of, you know, just ghosts, you know, but

Josh Schachter:
I’m sure there weren’t. I guess there’s not so many. I know they say that St. Louis is the Silicon Valley of Missouri, but you know, I’m sure there weren’t so many tech behemoths in the area. So it was probably a prime target for you. Okay, so you were a school counselor?

Katy Bone:
No, so I could like that was. I have my dual master’s, but I didn’t go that route. I went the, like more of the clinical side of my degree. And so I actually worked in the field of eating disorders for 12 years. Is my, it’s my. Was my specialty.

Josh Schachter:
Yeah. Okay, what are the parallels today of your life in the world of eating disorders and your dual degrees in counseling with your relationships with customers?

Katy Bone:
Okay, so that is where there is a ton of similarities. So the cross functional collaboration is key. So my like tenure at the eating disorder facility, I fought for clients to get coverage with their insurance. And so right there I was collaborating with all of the different, you know, different personalities, different roles in the companies. So obviously the insurance companies, but then the doctors at the insurance companies, psychiatrists, the different therapists, dietitians. So the more I knew, the more I could help the client get coverage. So there the industry Standard was like 30 days of a residential program. I was able to get, you know, usually like 45 days.

Katy Bone:
And that honestly was from relationship building. So. Right. There was very similar. And you can kind of look at a insurance denial similar to like say a churn with cs. So it’s actually very similar. Obviously completely different industries, but the relationships is 100% at the core of both of them. You know, you have to know your stuff though, because that doesn’t get you what you want just because you’re a friend.

Josh Schachter:
But you like the human aspect, the human element of it and building the relationships. Okay, and speaking of building relationships, you had a very unique way to build one with the hiring managers of Gainsay because again, you didn’t have a background in this. And we receive lots of applicants from very experienced and great CSMs and we can’t always get. Get to everybody. How’d you get through all the noise and earn your way into a seat?

Katy Bone:
Yes, so that was hard. But I knew from the start that I had to go with my gut and what I thought because yes, I knew one person at gainsight and you know, that might have helped push the resume through, but that didn’t and he would tell you that did not get me the job. So I knew they had very qualified candidates, people with CS background. So I knew I had to stand out and I had to make it them be like, oh, okay, maybe, you know, we can teach her the tech side of things, but we can’t always teach, you know, people who can build relationships and someone who will, who will fight for the company. And so I started, you know, I would post on LinkedIn and show how, how I would benefit their company knowing that people are on LinkedIn and I was not previously on there. So I would be very strategic but genuine with what I was posting. And then I would send very intentional emails. Of course, you know, your follow up emails after an interview, that’s okay, that’s normal.

Katy Bone:
But the interview process, normal, but you

Josh Schachter:
don’t always get it. I’m surprised by the way you would think you would.

Katy Bone:
I have found that out recently. I was telling a friend, did you send a follow up email? No. Should I? Yes, like you absolutely have to. And with a good subject line. So before when I had the panel interview, it was for an, you know, like an ebr. I had never done an EBR in my life, so I’m like, okay, awesome. This is, this. I have to nail it.

Josh Schachter:
And I don’t even know what an ABR is. Abr, like an EBR qbr.

Katy Bone:
Yeah. Ebr. Sorry.

Josh Schachter:
Oh, ebr. Oh, that’s just the Midwestern accent. I see. Executive Business Review. Okay, we’re on the same page.

Katy Bone:
Yes. EBR qbr. So before that interview, I sent out an EBR prep to everyone. And I had even asked a friend like, hey, do you think I should do that? And he said, I mean you could, but I don’t think it’s needed. So I thought about it. I was like, no, I’m going to do that because that again is my name coming through. And, and that, that is something I would do if I, you know, worked at Gainsight. So I sent the prep and I later found out from the recruiter that they thought that they missed an ebr, like a real EBR because of that email that I had sent, which is hilarious.

Katy Bone:
So I was like, okay, good, good job, good job. So that was, that was fun. And it just went over, you know, the agenda, just kind of like everyone’s role in the ebr, things like that. And then, you know, we had the panel, the hiring process again, just, just took a little bit of time, no big deal. But I also needed a job and I had end of the interviews had picked up at a few other places. So I knew, though my eye was on the prize, which was Gainsight. But also I wanted Gainsight to know that if you don’t hire me, you’re losing someone. Because I also didn’t want to.

Katy Bone:
I wanted them to know the value in me and not know your worth. Yes. And so I was, you know, at that point. So that’s when I sent the bathroom proposal. And I think knowing the company that you’re interviewing for is very important. I knew that, that they were fun. They were. They had good senses of humor.

Katy Bone:
So I sent them the subject line said bathroom reading that could change Gainsight’s future. And then I put winky face. So I did that because, yes, some companies that would not be appropriate for. I read the room and I thought it was hilarious. So I was like, I’m just going to send this email. So I sent my bathroom proposal on how hiring me would benefit the company, and really quickly, just hit send. And then I thought I was going to get sick that I just sent a bathroom proposal to executives at Gainsight. But I got really good feedback from it.

Katy Bone:
So I was happy that I sent it.

Josh Schachter:
Did they respond?

Katy Bone:
Yes, they did. Yes.

Josh Schachter:
That’s amazing.

Katy Bone:
Yes.

Josh Schachter:
I love the idea that you infuse humor to really kind of show your unique style. It’s something that. That not a lot of people are. Put themselves out on that limb these days. And I think you need to, because there’s so much noise right now when you think about outbound and outreach and. And all the communication that everybody’s inundated with.

Katy Bone:
Yes.

Josh Schachter:
You did something similar with your LinkedIn background, your. Your banner. Tell us about that.

Katy Bone:
Yeah, so occasionally I will not. Not occasionally. Often I will, you know, be looking at my accounts and I need to have some certain touch points not to check off a box, but because for the best partnerships, I need to be, you know, talking to the key stakeholders at the company, you know, every so often to understand their outcomes. But occasionally I’ll send them an email and I’ll see that they view my profile on LinkedIn. Not like, I’m not one who, like, thinks into things that much about it, but I’m like, okay, if you got my email, that’s probably why you viewed my profile. It could be coincidence, but probably not. But then I don’t get a response. So just to be funny, my background says, you know, something like, yes, I’m real.

Katy Bone:
You know, you can reply to me, respond to me. Just to be kind of, you know, Goofy and fun. You know, life’s. Life’s too short. You need to have. You need to have some fun. So I did that. And it did.

Katy Bone:
It has worked once. I’m hoping for more outcomes there, but. And it could be working more. They just haven’t, like, mentioned it, so.

Josh Schachter:
I love it. I love it. Okay, so we’ve been building this. This social selling motion we’re calling it, but basically just creating more humans on LinkedIn, which is really the place a lot of our cis audience lives. And it’s been one of my efforts, really, to be able to go in there and have everybody at our company share their stories to create that connection. Because Nick used to. Nick Mehta used to do such a phenomenal job at that, and there’s literally nobody in the world like him. But.

Josh Schachter:
But we want to scale that same approach. And so you’ve been one of the CSMs that has been most active, and I thank you for that in taking up this initiative. Tell us a little bit about what you’ve been doing, just generally speaking, with. With your LinkedIn over the past several months since we’ve been getting going, and maybe a little bit about the impact that that’s had.

Katy Bone:
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ll be honest and transparent and say that when I started at Gainsight, or even before that, I thought LinkedIn had to only be about professional, you know, endeavors like, here’s, you know, how you can scale cs. That’s what I thought it was. And so then, you know, when Darren came on and when you were talking about social selling, it answered my question that the times that I was vulnerable and posted about different things, it was okay. And I just, like, didn’t know that line of what I could do. I didn’t want, you know, to, you know, I don’t want to embarrass gainsight. But then I realized, like, it’s okay and it’s showing that you’re a human. And so I have posted about my nonprofit blessings for Barrett to show people that Katy.

Katy Bone:
The reason that Katy is where she is is honestly because of loss. And so I think that that has shown my customers, like, a vulnerable side of me. And I do think that it’s. It has actually helped. I’ve had several customers reach out and just me for my vulnerability, you know, and I think there’s a professional way of being vulnerable. I’m not sharing, like, you know what I mean, like, nitty gritty things. I don’t mind if someone asks me, but I. I think I found that, like, sweet spot of sharing my reality, but also, like, you know, keeping some things private to still be professional about it.

Katy Bone:
So I think.

Josh Schachter:
I think I. I’d argue that you’ve been very vulnerable. I mean, I understand that, you know, what you’ve shared. What. What. What happened to Barrett is, is. It’s factual. It’s, it’s.

Josh Schachter:
It’s. It’s not like you sharing, like, you know, your inner thoughts and things like that. Right. Like, it is what. But nonetheless, I mean, the vividness with what you’ve shared has been incredibly vulnerable. So thank you for doing that. I believe that being open, transparent, and most importantly, vulnerable is the number one way that you create relationships with others. And so, yeah, I mean, what has it taught you about vulnerability?

Katy Bone:
Yeah, it’s definitely taught me that business executives, anyone in the business or anybody, they’re. They’re humans, too. And so I think there’s that Persona that you have to, you know, be quote, unquote, professional all the time, but just because you’re vulnerable doesn’t make you not professional. And I’ve actually had executives on some of my key accounts that, you know, we met at Pulse, we’ve met at, you know, different in person events, and they have thanked me, and they’ve actually shared similar experiences, and they did not feel that they. That that was ever welcomed in, like, their environment. And so that right there just showed me that every time you’re on a call with someone, you have no idea what has just happened in their life. And I think that is a testament to say that just being kind. And again, being vulnerable, I think has helped other people outside their professional world just feel seen.

Katy Bone:
And I think that right there is worth it, being vulnerable, because now they might show up better at home, they might show up better on a call because they, you know, they felt seen, and they felt like they were able to tell someone, hey, I’ve also experienced loss, but here we are still showing up, you know, for our companies, for our work.

Josh Schachter:
Yeah. Well, thank you. Thank you for showing up for yourself. Thank you for showing up for others, for Barrett, for gainsight in that way as well. I want to actually end on if you’re open to sharing a little bit about the cause that you started in Barrett’s honor, because I think it’s something that’s absolutely tremendous.

Katy Bone:
Yes. So in 2019, my son Barrett was born and, you know, full for full term pregnancy, everything appeared to be somewhat normal. Anyways, at 28 days old, Barrett passed away. So again, those 28 days were. I feel like why I’m the resilient person I am today because again, it was just lots of trying to figure out what was going on. So he passed away at 28 days old. And for the longest time, or I was, you know, angry that we only got 28 days, but now I’m thankful for those 28 days because of the person I am today. And we always did acts of kindness for people to honor his Life.

Katy Bone:
But then 2023, we actually started a non profit called Blessings for Barrett. And our mission is to serve children who have lost a sibling because at the time, Barrett’s sister, when he died, she was 16 months old. And so we really acknowledged the gap for grief care for these siblings. And so. And that’s really how I kind of entered sas all things technology. We needed a website, we needed workflows. You know, some people started to help and then I was like, no, I need to do this. And so that’s when I, you know, built our website.

Katy Bone:
Of course we’re still iterating, making things better, but it’s A.I.

Josh Schachter:
you’re vibing, right?

Katy Bone:
100%, yes. And I’m actually in the process of creating my own app, but that’s on the TL until it’s done. I’ve been working on it for about five months now, so. And that’s maybe not that long, but anyways. So yeah, I created Blessings for Barrett. Me and my husband are the co founders and it has just been amazing to see how far it’s reached. We are, we are in 45 states and in Canada, the UK, where we’ve sent grief boxes to children who have lost a sibling. And we also provide, you know, ongoing care with grief projects as well as support to hospitals as well to support kids in the hour of loss.

Katy Bone:
So lots of kind of lots of AI use with the nonprofit, which really kind of led me into the love for SaaS. And it’s definitely stretched my mind in ways I never knew it was possible.

Josh Schachter:
And where can folks learn more about the cause?

Katy Bone:
Yeah, they can learn more at www.blessingsforbarrett.com.

Josh Schachter:
great. Thank you. Thank you, Katy. It’s such a tremendous story. Really touching. Katy Bone, Enterprise CSM at Gainsight. Thank you so much for being on the program and sharing your background and your story.

Katy Bone:
Yes, thank you so much for having me.