The vendor-driven market is designed for exactly this moment — and it moves faster than you do when you're in crisis.
The vendor who failed you is now pitching you the fix. They know your environment. They know the timeline pressure. They've already drafted the remediation proposal. And walking away feels harder than it should because you've already invested in the relationship and switching feels like losing twice.
Or a new vendor is circling, knowing you're desperate and that desperation has a dollar value. Expedited implementations, premium support, bundled services — solutions sized for your panic, not your actual problem. Longer contracts with lower per-unit costs if you commit now, while you're too distracted to read what you're signing.
You take the deal because you need to move. Because doing something feels better than doing nothing.
You inherit another bad contract, another vendor relationship built on misaligned incentives. Now you've got two problems instead of one.
The cycle repeats — and it will keep repeating until someone slows it down.

