What to Do About "Sunk Cost Fallacy" in IT As a Sales Rep?

If there's one thing about IT projects I've learned over my career, the particularly troublesome one is the sunk cost fallacy. The reality is, it never presents itself this way.

No one says: "Let's keep investing in this platform which is not fit for purpose - whose maintenance is 4-5x the competition - that we only found one developer for."

Instead, everyone says these things:

* "I don't own it now. If I raise my hand or touch it, I own it."

* "If it takes 4-6 months to move to a new platform and two months to add this simple feature, I would rather get the new feature because it will make the boss or investors happier sooner."

* "It's tough to add a new vendor - I have to make it through the security, legal, and customer data team hurdles, and it's just not worth the hassle."

In a situation like this, the true challenge is ownership. Maintenance of the existing platform, while a challenge, is understood. A new platform is just a promise without a clear owner.

While you might think this was only a problem in large-scale composable eCommerce projects, it also affects simpler cloud-based eCommerce installations.

How did we get here?

Usually, the person who made the decision is long gone, and existing employees are left holding the bag. Employees know what's wrong, but the rewards for change are less than the rewards for staying in place -- particularly if you look at it from the point of view of an individual employee.

If you're a sales rep at an eCommerce vendor or agency in this situation, there often needs to be a clear path forward due to the effects of inertia. Some deals are not "winnable" unless there is a change in circumstance: new investor, new CEO, new technology, marketing or digital officer with a key blocked project.