$ man vendor-lock-in

Vendor Lock-In

When switching away from a tool or agency requires starting from zero - no data export, no workflow portability, no institutional knowledge transfer. The cost of leaving exceeds the cost of staying, even when staying means suboptimal results.

vendor lock-in is the most expensive problem in GTM that nobody budgets for. it shows up when the agency controls your tool logins, when your enrichment data lives in their accounts, when your outbound sequences are built on their templates in their platforms. you are paying a premium for campaigns, but you own none of the infrastructure. I see this pattern in almost every agency audit. the client has been running outbound for two years and owns zero assets - no data, no workflows, no documentation. if they leave the agency tomorrow, they start from scratch. that is not a partnership. that is a dependency.

during every stack audit, I check three things. first, who owns the logins? every tool should be in the client's accounts with their credentials. second, can the data be exported? enrichment results, campaign analytics, contact lists - all should be exportable in standard formats. third, is the workflow documented? if the person who built it leaves, can someone else operate it? a go-to-market engineer builds everything in the client's accounts from day one. documentation is written as the system is built, not after. when the engagement ends, the client has a running system with full ownership. that is the opposite of lock-in.