At what point do you throw in the towel?

For some context: I work for a mid-sized company that sells a solution on one side of the house (Side A), and my side sells the data behind the solution to another separate market (Side B). My team (4 sales + 1 product + 1 engineering) is significantly smaller than Side A, with significantly less resources despite being the ONLY consistently profitable sales team in the company. Anything we need we have to do ourselves or else it doesn’t get done. 

In December 2021, we got news that we were (finally) getting an addition to the data after the team + prospects/customers asked for it for over a year prior. I explicitly remember my boss stressing that we NEEDED to start building pipeline around this new addition, so I did.

First the completion date was estimated for EOQ1 (22), then April at the latest, then June, then DEFINITELY by July, then no later than Q3, to now: the team isn’t totally optimistic about 2022 at all. I got sent to a conference that solely had buyers for this new addition, built over 6 million dollars in pipeline (this is only 20% of expected actual revenue), networked and have become a subject matter expert since December. Because of the continuous delays, I’m starting to now lose deals that are just fizzling out.

So, sure, shit happens and products get delayed all of the time (over the course of two years though?? Come on). I wish I could say “well you know the lift is heavy for our small team” but my team has confirmed that we HAVE this data in hand - they are waiting on developers to build out the mechanism in which the data becomes function “and it should be a short project.” Also, our product director has been fighting for our team tooth and nail the entire 8 years she’s been here. But like, if she can’t get resources to get shit done, what’s she supposed to do?

So why I’m making this post. In the time that just I have been waiting for this addition (December 2021), Side A has had several product updates and expansions (Side B literally hasn’t had an expansion or update since August 2020 - our UI looks like it was created in the 80s), an acquisition to, again, enhance their product, full product development, framing, marketing materials and roll out within the past 4 months set to roll out EOQ3 (we’ve been asking for a sales deck from marketing and updated white papers for over a year). 

I’m losing steam y’all. I’m losing big deals that are worth millions on multi-year contracts and could genuinely change the company. I believe in what I sell - it’s good and is genuinely changing the game in my industry. But we’re leaving the space of innovation now and getting passed up by our (multi-billion $$$) competitors. Work life balance is amazing. Industry is great. Colleagues are awesome. I’m paid well. I love my manager, SLT and ELT.

I learned a valuable lesson here: don’t sell something that isn’t completely finished regardless of who tells you to do it. If everything else is great, is this something that you would stick it out through? I love my job but I genuinely am considering jumping ship.