Frequently Asked Questions -- Suppliers                                                                  October 30, 2003

www.FindStone.com is a simple, transparent & successful marketplace to enable you to sell products and services related to the stone industry locally and globally to the trade and to retail buyers.  

How can FindStone help us sell?  (Must see)

What steps does FindStone recommend for any supplier?
   Why should we display our Company Profile? 
   How do we display our Stone Images?
   Why should we give our Price List? 
   Why should we display our Stock?
   Why should we display our Product Images?                 
   How do we display our Application / Project Images?
   How can we share our expertise or provide services?  

Can FindStone promote our products?         

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How can we buy a buyer’s contact?  

The price of the buyer's contact is written at the end of the inquiry.
Contacts are sold on a first-come-first-served basis i.e. the inquiry is closed when sold.
This plan is best for those who specialize in specific items or where the buyer is open to any material.
To pay, go to www.findstone.com/payment.htm  
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What if we buy a contact and don't get the order?

If you did not get an order because you were not competitive or your quality was not suitable, then you do not get any credit.

We give you credit if the buyer:
- is not genuine
- has no intention to buy
- is unresponsive
- has already placed orders

Remember, you may ask clarifications from the buyer before paying us for the contact. 
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How do we pay?

www.findstone.com/payment.htm has our address, bank details, paypal, and credit card payment links. 
You can also pay through Western Union.

Credibility issues:
1. We are situated near the main railway station of Bombay and is in the heart of the business district.
2. Do note that the road is named after our CEO's family.
3. Do ask your bank to check with our bank for a reference.
4. We are a self-service marketplace with transparent systems.
5. Our methods are simple, straightforward, easy and effective.
6. One press article about us is at www.findstone.com/press/acw.htm 
7. If you have dealings with someone in our country, you can send the payment to them, and they can release it to us as mutually agreed.
8. If you have a friend in Bombay, ask them to visit us.
9. Phone and talk to us to clarify your doubts or email us.
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How do we sell on a commission basis? 

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Is there a suggested format for quoting    

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Can you give examples of supplier responses which are not helpful?

Below are the difficulties in dealing with certain types of responses made by suppliers to buyers' enquiries: 

1 Supplier: On going through your enquiries, some of the buyers ask for photographs or image of the products but you suggest not to send photographs. How to proceed with. 
Our reply: most images are in the stone album - or you can send us separately - we will put it there. 

2 Supplier: You advise not to ask questions without quoting prices. But how one can quote a price without asking for details of the buyer's requirement or some clarification since most of the enquiries are without product details, size specification etc. 
Our reply: we always ask those questions - see Offer no. 2 in any of the See Offers link. 

3 Supplier from India: There are some buyers, who show interest to purchase blocks, clearly specifying the colours and origin, which may not be available in India. But being buyers of blocks, they may definitely require granite blocks of INDIAN origin in future though not require immediately. 
Our reply: - So they can come back to us in the future. 
Supplier's response: At this stage, if we send our offer letter for Indian Blocks, which may be referred by the buyer for his future requirement, will you forward it to the buyer. 
Our reply:- No because the buyer can see that we have many suppliers of Indian blocks and will contact us to float their inquiry when they need it.
Supplier's further response: Or else, will you provide contact details after taking undertaking from us that you are entitled for commission after fulfilling the buyer's requirement. 
Our reply: - Really it is a waste of time. It is better to use our Promotional Services to find buyers who can buy.

4 Supplier: Now, we are planning to quote our offer for Landscaping Stones for many enquiries with the confidence that we will have at least some response. Can we cut and paste photographs or send as attachments? 
Our reply - Send separately. We will put it in our Online Stores. Then you can refer buyers to that page. 
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Give us some examples of poor responses of suppliers?  

- "We can supply. Please contact us (or please see our website)" 
Our reaction: And how shall findstone make money? 

- "It is our pleasure to introduce ourselves. We are a big company, established in ....., with .... workers, able to supply you all products ......" 
Our reaction: Good but so say most Indian and Chinese companies and the buyer really doesn't care. If you can offer what he wants, please quote. 

- "Please inform us the required colour, material, size, quantity to quote" 
Our reaction: We always ask these questions to the buyer. So give some options for the buyer to select. 

- "Give me their address to contact" 
Our reaction: How cute. 

- "Are you still looking for it?" 
Our reaction: Of course, else we would have closed the enquiry. 

- "Contact me for further information" 
Our reaction: .... scratching our head and wondering what to do next 

- "We are granite & marble processers in Bangalore, India & can supply all the Indian color granite polished / flamed slabs & tiles. Kindly look into the attachment which states prices of different varieties that we can supply." 
Our reaction: Please give the URL (link) of your price list in findstone. We can not send attachments easily. 

- "Please tell us the buyer's fax number and email address. We will contact the buyer directly. We will pay after we receive the buyer's order. Trust us." 
Our reaction: Interesting. We are trusting this supplier for our commissions anyway even though he won't trust us with $ 100, even though we are probably financially bigger and publicly more visible than him. 

- "We are interested in the following inquiries: e 3461 USA, e 3452 USA, e 3442 Saudi Arabia, e 3440 USA, e 3436 USA, e 3342 Luxembourg. Would you please make a contact, e.g. by sending us the addresses. We grant you agreed commission resulting of these deals." 
Our reaction: This is going to be another Catch 22 situation. He will offer something the buyer does not want, the buyer will not respond, this supplier won't even phone the buyer to ascertain why the buyer is silent, he will think the buyers are not genuine, we will think we got cheated, the buyer will not know what to do, and all relationships will get spoilt instead of getting established. 
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Give us some examples of good responses of suppliers?

Here are some of the responses that we and the buyers like:

We are stone supplier from China. Here we'd like to recommend our sandstone product ZH-s201 to you. Please find the image on http://www.findstone.com/CHIsand1.htm. 

Pricelist of ZH-s021:

If there are some special requirement such as finish, dimension and so on please don't hesitate to contact us, we will quote for you accordingly.

Shanxi Black Polished 300*600*20mm
CNF HAIFA 21.60/m2

Other black granite such as Crystal Black
CNF HAIFA 17.90/m2

G603 Pilished 500*900*27mm including 4 holes per slab
CNF HAIFA 17.90/m2

G654 Pilished 500*900*27mm including 4 holes per slab
CNF HAIFA 26.00/m2

Slate and Quartzite - price per square metre of floor tiles is US$20 to US$15 (depending on thickness and size) C&F Rotterdam - based on 3 container per month order. Do not know if you wants blocks, slabs or tiles, please state if above quote is incorrect. Also please state if for roofing or floor tiles.

WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN THE FOLLOWING GRANITE BLOCKS FROM INDIA. 
BLOCK SIZE      240 X 120 X 80 in cms 
ALLOWANCE     5CM- 7CM on all sides
PACKING          in break bulk
INSPECTION     before shipment
PAYMENT        Against irrevocable letter of credit payable at Sight

Sl No                     Description                              FOB Price in US$ PER CUBIC METRE
--------------   -------------------------------    ---------------------------------------------------
1                          PARADISO                               610.00
2                          TAN BROWN                            460.00

The sizes available in Mint Fossil Stones are :
55/55, 55/40, 40/40, 55/70 (any other size can be made)
Thickness 25-35mm
Edges : Fine Hand cut
Price : US$ 8.50 FOB Mumbai port
Quantity required for one container : App. 370 sqm
India

I am writing to you as a Sales Director to offer you our services, meeting your demand to import fireplaces.
Amongst our products we have more than 65 models of fireplaces. Below are a small sample of the different lines of this product in order that it has a reference of decorative aesthetics and prices.

FIREPLACES PRICES (FindStone's Online Stores>>Supplier 9>>Spain>>Fireplaces)
009-0008          596 €
009-0001          1.042 €
009-0007          1.136 €
009-0002          1.212 €
009-0006          1.440 €
009-0003          1.894 €
009-0005          3.246 €
009-0004          570 €
We hope this meets all your needs. If you are interested in our offer, please let us know so as to agree on the commercial terms of partnership between both companies. Otherwise, we would be grateful to you for letting us know.

Price for Carrara marbles tiles 12 x 12 x 1 polished, bevelled and calibrated is 2,5 USDoll x S.F. ex Factory

We are producer of Rosalia 
Our standard measures are CIF
2*30*60- $18
2*30*free(300mm-590mm)- $16
3*33*1000mm-1100mm-1200mm- $29
Turkey

We wish to supply you rough blocks in Kuppam green at USD 315/cbm fob madras India
red multi at USD500/m3
Please elaborate your requirements

Please find below our quotation for CREMA MARFIL polished slabs, for quantities from 2 to 4 containers: 
Thickness 2cm, high commercial quality, 29,- €/m2 
Thickness 3cm, high commercial quality, 41,- €/m2 
Thickness 2cm, 1st quality, 36,- €/m2 
Thickness 3cm, 1st quality, 49,- €/m2 
Prices are EXW Spanish Factory. 
Regarding the quotation for tiles, we would need to know the sizes and the desired finish (polished, honed, antik...?). 

We would urge even the above suppliers to add the following:
- their city, state, country
- a one-line description about themselves
- their willingness to send images, samples, talk on the phone, or visit the buyer.
- a link to their profiles, price lists, ready stock, and images in the findstone site.
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How can we make an offer when the buyer has not given sufficient info?  

Just because information given by the buyer is insufficient, it does not mean that the buyer is not serious. 

If a buyer does not specify properly, you should, in fact, be happy. It means that he has not yet decided so he is open to being influenced towards your products and your company.

Many buyers also presume that suppliers have standard products, qualities, sizes, etc., and want to first know what these are so that they can make an intelligent selection.

Help the buyer by giving a check list of CHOICES that YOU offer such as:
a) price list
b) product list with specifications 
c) questions that you need answered to be able to quote

The most important thing is to establish your credibility by giving an intelligent reply. Talk to the buyer just as if the buyer had contacted you directly. What questions would you ask? What choices would you give?

Do's:
- give a basic offer and state the possible options, or
- suggest options with prices, or
- give a full price list, or
- give a checklist of questions that you need answered to make an offer, or
- buy the contact and deal direct 

Don'ts:
- do not simply say that you can supply
- do not ask to simply contact you through your email, website, or phone
- do not give only a general description of your company
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Can we contact buyers on a commission basis even if the buyer has not responded to our offer?
 

Yes, you may do so.

We would like to retain a $ 100 deposit fee for EVERY ACTIVE BUYER you are in contact through us.
"Active" means any buyer who has not said 'no' to you.
So either give a status report on all the contacts we have given to you till then or pay an additional deposit.

Some of the reasons are:
- it makes suppliers give us timely feedback about the status of the inquiries
- it ensures that suppliers only ask for contacts that they are serious about
- it keeps accounting up to date
- it enables us and suppliers to be more aware of what is working for them and what is not
- it balances our cash-flows and reduces our risks
- we don't feel pressured to sell the contact or work with a new supplier 
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Can we contact the buyer directly without doing the initial negotiation through FindStone?

It is possible. After all, selling is easier, more effective, and more successful when suppliers and buyers are in direct contact rather than indirectly via email through us as emails are incomplete and impersonal.
But sometimes all that a supplier does is send an email to the buyer even when put in direct contact.
If you commit to phoning the buyer, sending samples at your cost, and keeping us informed, we could put you in direct contact.
But, we do need to know you better as we do not like giving away free contacts.
So if there is no deal, we would like to charge something for the contact anyway, say $ 20.
We are anyway open to receiving your proposal on this.
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Why should we pay a deposit fee?  

We need a $ 100 / Euro 100 / INR 5000 deposit fee for various reasons:
- To know which supplier is serious and which is not.
- To ensure commitment and seriousness of a supplier. (It is very easy for a supplier to ask for a contact.)
- To give preference to or work closely with a supplier.
- To reduce our risk. (This reduces the risk of not getting our due commission.)
- To ensure we get compensated for our time. (Many suppliers do not know how to deal over the internet or with buyers of different countries. We end up spending time to educate them.)
- To work closely with serious companies who are comfortable & supportive of our concept. 

Why would a supplier not pay such a small amount? 
The reasons that have come to our mind are - fear, ego of own company size, poor financial situation, bad intentions, non-understanding of a marketplace concept, or own silly ideas of what works.

Fear is valid. We can only suggest you put it aside and try us out.
If you are a big company, make a win-win proposal and send us catalogs, references, company history and profile, etc. to study.

We need suppliers who will put in time, effort and money to close deals. If a supplier is unwilling (for whatever reason) to give this trivial deposit, our experience shows that such suppliers have no commitment in doing deals through FindStone irrespective of how big they are and it usually ends up just being a big waste of time for us. 

We also need to prioritize. We have many ideas still to be implemented. Also we get more work daily than we can handle. So priority is given to buyers and to paying suppliers. And we have found the $ 100 deposit fee a simple but important qualifier. 
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Do we have to give the deposit fee once only or each time?

We would like to have the deposit fee for EVERY ACTIVE BUYER you are in contact through us.
"Active" means any buyer who has not said 'no' to you.
So you have to either give a status report on all the contacts we have given you or pay an additional deposit.

Some of the reasons are:
- it makes suppliers give us timely feedback about the status of the inquiry
- it ensures that suppliers only ask for contacts that they are serious about
- it keeps accounting up to date
- it enables us and suppliers to be more aware of what is working for them and what is not
- it balances our cash-flows and reduces our risks
- we don't feel pressured to sell the contact or work with a new supplier 

The maximum amount that we need to have is $ 500.
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We still don't want to pay the deposit of $ 100.

If you do not want to pay the deposit, 
- fill www.findstone.com/supplierform.htm  

and then send the following for us to take a decision:-
- www.findstone.com/mou.htm  
- your company registration number 
- your company profile, history, etc. 
- your product list and price list 
- mobile and home phone numbers of Managing Director/CEO, marketing manager, finance manager 
- two trade references in our country or yours with full contact details 
- contact details of your auditor 
- details of 2 Arbitrators e.g. Stone Association, Chamber of Commerce, Industry Association 

Do appreciate that it is we who have to trust suppliers for large amounts. Suppliers have to only trust us for a small amount.
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Why doesn't FindStone ask buyers to pay to contact us?

We do. The percentage of buyers who pay are very few and good opportunities get lost.
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Does FindStone trade?

No!
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Can I be FindStone’s agent?

Fill www.findstone.com/supplierform.htm and give us your proposal in detail. We are always willing to discuss.
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Which types of suppliers are difficult to work with? 

Top of the list – Those who say ‘Trust Us!’ particularly those who don’t give any reason why we should trust them and it is clear that they are small. 
Our thought 1: In this industry, any company can draw up a large list of experiences and companies, where they have cheated or been cheated. 
Our thought 2: Don’t they realize that we are anyway trusting them for our commissions while they can’t trust us for $ 100 when quite often we are bigger than they are? 

Those who say ‘We can offer / source anything so work only with us!’ 
Our thought: Don’t they realize those days are over? If they are still getting random orders, they must consider themselves lucky and plan how to exit painlessly. Anyway, it is neither our concern nor our prerogative. What our concern is that, invariably, their prices are way too high. 

Those who say ‘Give me the contact and we will deal directly’ for inquiries where the material is still undefined (a container of granite tiles) or less defined (Egyptian slabs). 
Our thought 1: Why don’t they at least qualify if the buyer wants the type of stone that they are offering? 
Our thought 2: This is going to become a Catch 22 situation. Buyers don’t take the trouble to respond to say ‘no’, and sellers then think that the buyer is not genuine. To make things worse, such sellers will not even phone the buyer to ascertain what they want or why they are silent. 

Those who say ‘Get me the order and I will pay you.’ 
Our thought 1: Do they remember the steps involved to get the order? i.e. the buyer must like their price and delivery schedule, they must like the buyer’s payment terms, they buyer must approve their physical samples, the responsibility of inspection or guarantee of quality must be established, and if it for a project, the buyer needs to be sure that the material will be definitely supplied, properly, and in time, else there will be a disaster, and so the buyer needs to interact with the actual supplier and not with us. 
Our thought 2: Don’t they understand that if we wanted to trade, why would we work with them and not maybe with other suppliers? 

Those who say ‘$ 100 for a contact? It didn’t cost you anything to get it! Would you pay for the inquiries that we get?’ 
Our thought 1: True, the cost of getting a particular inquiry may often be zero, but the entire organizational costs are geared to getting these ‘free’ inquiries and thus have to be paid for through these inquiries. 
Our thought 2: Yes, we will pay $ 10 for any inquiry. 

Those who say ‘Why don’t you charge a yearly subscription of, say $ 250, and give me all the leads?’ 
Our thought 1: We would love to. It would take away all our headaches. But the harsh reality is that there are not enough takers. Internet companies of all types have learnt this painful lesson. 
Our thought 2: Why do people want to make it easier for other suppliers? In fact, they should be saying, what would it cost for us to get exclusivity for this inquiry, all such inquiries, all inquiries for my country's material, all such types of buyers, etc. 

Those who say ‘You should take 1-2% commission’ 
Our thought 1: We would be happy to reduce commissions but the economics to do that are not yet there. If we take any figure, say $ 10000 per month, to get that with 1% commission, we would need a dealflow of $ 1 million per month. And that’s not happening. 
Our thought 2: Isn’t it wiser for us to pursue $ 100 x 100 payments instead of $ 1 million in sales? 
Our thought 3: Another one who does not understand that their own indirect costs of getting such inquiries are higher or who does not understand marketing costs. 

Those who say ‘I like 20 inquiries. At $ 100 each, this would mean that I would pay $ 2000. And, I may not even get a single order.’ 
Our thought 1: This person has not even begun and has already made a full movie plot. 
Our thought 2: He has been interested since so many months, has not begun with even one inquiry, and now wants to straight away jump with 20 !? 
Our thought 3: Now how do we convey that we also want that everyone who pays us should benefit and we will go the extra mile to help people? 

Those who say ‘I don’t want to pay even one dollar upfront!’ 
Our thought 1: Is this an financial or organizational hurdle or is it an ego issue? 
Our thought 2: Will this company spend to phone the buyer or send samples? Of course, visiting the buyer or inviting the buyer is out of the question for this company, isn't it? 
Our thought 3: If he doesn’t trust us with his $ 100, why doesn’t he say that? It may be easily resolvable. 

Those who say ‘We are big!’ 
Our thought 1: What are they trying to say? Because they are big, they are honest? Because they are big, their company policy does not allow them to deviate from their existing policy? Because they are big, they have too much internal red tape for this small amount? Because they are big, we are insulting them by implying that we will not get paid later. OK, so convince us that we will benefit and we will forgo the $ 100. 

Those who say ‘The bank charges for sending $ 100 is $ 20!’ 
Our thought 1: And so what are we supposed to do? 
Our thought 2: So send $ 500 on account. 
Our thought 3: Pay by credit card or mail a banker's check or demand draft
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I am still not convinced.   

It is perfectly natural. Dealing through the internet is a mental challenge and it takes time to do so especially as there remains a notion that it is supposed to be 'free'. 

Also the concept of a marketplace is a difficult one for some people to digest. We do not view ourselves as traders or agents and so our mentality is different and many don't realize that we see ourselves as a self-service marketplace and we do not run after suppliers. 

We come across skeptical suppliers daily so we accept that as human nature. We need suppliers who understand that there is a cost of marketing and who want to benefit from our worldwide reach and who are willing to put in resources to work with us.

We are not saying that our approach is necessarily the only right one. We do periodically experiment with different ideas to see what delivers better value to suppliers and buyers.

The best thing we can suggest is that you take a risk of $ 100. The second best thing we can suggest is to remain on our mailing list. We may change our policies or you may change your mind.

We waste years of our life cumulatively and lose opportunities for the sake of small amounts of money. It's human nature. We hope you will be able to overcome the ego or fear or laziness that creates this tendency. On our part, we always welcome suggestions but we do need uniform systems to cope with the volume of email that our site gets because it is such an open and deep site.

As of now, our system is simple, easy and very effective!

Happy Selling. 
www.findstone.com  
info@findstone.com