In the world of sales, there are often no right answers. What would you do in this tough sales situation? Make the call below, and see instantly how your judgment compares. Final results will appear in LBM Journal. Be sure to check back next month for a fresh Tough Call.

Tough Call - The Hatfields and the McCoys

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to build a deck. A normal deck, that is.

Jim McCoy is no ordinary deck builder, and his decks are revered for quality in both design and construction. He has a growing reputation as the Frank Lloyd Wright of decks.

By providing years of solid service, fair prices and accurate insights into the latest decking products, you have become Jim McCoy’s sole material supplier. Which befuddles your competitors, since you also sell decks on an installed basis. What your competitors don’t know is that you never bid against McCoy on deck jobs. Instead, you limit your yard’s efforts to small projects where McCoy and his craftsmen wouldn’t waste their time.

You’ve always figured there was no chance for a conflict here—but you figured wrong.

Hatfield Homes is a second-generation home builder—and by far the premier custom builder in your area. As it happens, Hank Hatfield, the company president, has been your friend since grade school. That convenient fact has also helped make you the primary supplier to Hatfield Homes.

Traditionally, completed Hatfield Homes had a ledger board—making them deck-ready. But Hank Hatfield has decided to try a different tack: putting homes on the market with a completed deck. Since most Hatfield Home-owners hired Jim McCoy’s firm to do their deck, his company is the obvious choice for these jobs. Unfortunately, Hank Hatfield refuses to do business with—or even talk to—Jim McCoy. (Apparently, something in an earlier generation triggered a family feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys.)

Hank knows that your company sells some decks installed, and wants you to provide that for his homes. It would be welcome business during the current housing slump, but you feel it’s wrong on two levels.

First, your decks are very basic—and your installers don’t have the skill to designn and execute a McCoy-caliber deck, which would help Hank’s houses sell faster. Second, providing decks for Hatfield Homes is the core of Jim McCoy’s business—and a key reason for his success.

The situation: Hatfield Homes would be much better served with a McCoy deck. Jim McCoy relies on Hatfield Home customers for the majority of his business, and you have little doubt that taking on this lucrative project would be the end of your relationship with Jim McCoy. Both are great guys and honorable businessmen—but this feud is going to hurt them both. And you’re right in the middle.

What would you do?

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