Over the period I have spent setting up a new business I have, at times, found it hard to actually buy from New Zealand suppliers. Without going into the details of the industry etc, on a number of occasions I have met with a potential supplier, they have talked about their offering, and then never followed up. So, I have had to chase them.
None of these suppliers, were bad people as such, in fact on many occasions they offered valuable insights and information. They were able to tailor their solution/product and in many cases offered to connect to others. But in many cases, they didn’t ask me for the business or there was little-to- no follow up.
It got me thinking that we can be quite average in New Zealand in providing a level of service. I think it is in our nature to not be too ‘salesy’, but as a customer I actually found this difficult, as I was wanting to get moving and tick that supply challenge off my long to-do list.
Linking this back to the world of scale-up organisations and it reminds me of an article that I was given written by Bill Reichart. He nicely refers to the fact that we need to improve our sales efforts in New Zealand.
Having worked in Australia, I think this is where our mates across the ditch have got it over us.
Their national sport is (arguably) AFL. In the world of AFL, kick it, punch it, bounce it - just whatever you do, go forward. And I think this same attitude crosses over into the Australian business psyche.
Whereas in NZ, our national sport of rugby is a game of defend back first, and then go forward.
Perhaps we can learn from our Aussie mates, especially when we are selling overseas and be proud of what we are offering, go forward and be confident.
