B2B Inspired
B2B Inspired, the podcast by BlueOcean - The B2B Agency, is all about exploring the ins, outs, ups and downs of B2B Marketing here in Aotearoa, New Zealand. We'll uncover emerging trends and thinking while sharing inspiring real-world stories from B2B Marketers here in New Zealand. With the goal of supporting New Zealand’s B2B Marketing community in becoming one of the best and brightest anywhere in the world, let’s roll up our sleeves and take on tomorrow together.
B2B Inspired
Partnering For Export Success with Phillipa Cameron
Thinking about exporting? In this episode of B2B Inspired, we talk with Phillipa Cameron, General Manager – Customer at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), about what it really takes to grow your business beyond New Zealand.
Phillipa shares how NZTE works in partnership with Kiwi exporters to reduce risk, build capability, and unlock international opportunities. From deep market insights to on-the-ground support in over 40 countries, NZTE helps businesses tackle the complexity of export growth with the right tools, advice, and people.
We explore the importance of preparation, knowing your customer, and building a value proposition that works across markets. Whether you’re taking your first steps offshore or expanding into new territories, this episode offers practical guidance on how partnering with NZTE can set you up for global success.
For more B2B insights, ideas and opportunities, head to www.blueoceanagency.co.nz
Subscribe
When you subscribe to B2B Inspired, you're playing a key role in growing and supporting New Zealand's B2B Marketing Community.
Share Your Feedback
Got something to say? We're all ears. Your voice is what powers this community – it can't grow without you.
Connect with Us
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blueocean-agency/
Website: https://www.blueoceanagency.co.nz/podcast/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WeDoB2B
Let’s roll up our sleeves and take on tomorrow together.
Thank you, ecosystem. We're here to help the New Zealand B2B community to become one of the best, boldest and brightest anywhere in the world. Now if, like me, you live and breathe all things business to business and you're looking for a place to connect, learn and be inspired, you have come to the right place. Now let's join Lee Hunter over in the studio.
Speaker 2:Welcome to our B2B Inspired podcast. If you're looking to grow your footprint overseas, you'll know it comes with its fair share of challenges finding the right partners to navigating new markets. In today's episode, we're joined by someone who knows the space inside and out Philippa Cameron, general Manager Customer at NZTE. Philippa brings deep experience in digital transformation, customer strategy, international growth. She currently leads the NZTE customer engagement across New Zealand, helping businesses succeed on the global stage. With her help today we'll explore how NZTE supports exporters, what services they offer and how they're helping New Zealand businesses overcome barriers and seize opportunities around the world. Welcome, philippa.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Great to have you here, Cool. Let's just start with the basics. Could you just tell us a bit about your background, how you got to where you are today and your role within NZTE?
Speaker 3:Yes, so my background is in FMCG, innovation and digital, particularly within media. I joined NZTE right in the thick of COVID really hard time to start a new job, but what a time to join an agency like New Zealand Trade and Enterprise that is focused on helping New Zealand exporters through arguably what was, you know, one of the toughest times that we've faced recently. So when I joined that team, I was really focusing on our support of smaller companies and scaling our impact across more customers, more exporters that we could help during that time. Then I jumped into the digital and data side of our organisation, building out our MyNZTE platform, which is where you can go for kind of self-help and information and events, and more recently have moved into leading the export customer team based in New Zealand. So that's a team of customer managers that work with our New Zealand exporters and help them connect with our one global team across the world and all of our experts.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Just to unpack that a little bit, you mentioned the digital platform that you guys have built. Who's that for and what's the purpose of that? How do business owners know when to come and what service that's for?
Speaker 3:So that digital platform is called MyNZTE, so if you Google it you'll find it quite quickly. That's a free and open platform for New Zealand businesses to go and search up any kind of one-on-one information that they might need on a variety of topics. You know most recently that might be tariffs, so being able to go in there and get information about you know what are the changes that have come out of those tariffs. What should I be thinking about in terms of how I might navigate? That you could sign up to events that would be kind of one-to-many. They might be webinars, they might be in person I and there's also lots of tools that you can use or download to help you navigate lots of different things, be that how to build out your value proposition, how to navigate, finding the right distributor.
Speaker 3:There's some fantastic market guide information in there. So when businesses are thinking about what countries to target, these market guides are a 101 on what you should be thinking about before you go and enter into that market. So it's a fantastic resource. And we also find lots of non-businesses are jumping in to have a look. You know, maybe students that are studying international business or entrepreneurs that are thinking about would they go into export, so it serves quite a wide range of people's needs.
Speaker 2:It sounds very helpful. So more of an educational platform, teaching people what they need to know before they make that leap.
Speaker 3:That's right. You can also book a 30-minute call with our customer advisory team, so it might be a great chance to give a bit of a sense check of how could we help you further, or maybe to help you navigate a really quick and easy to solve problem.
Speaker 2:Great. Now if we unpack that a little bit further. For let's say, I own a business and I'm going. I want to grow my business overseas and, because it's the closest, I want to go to Australia. How easy is it for me, how easy is it for other businesses, based on what you've seen, to make that leap Is it? Do I just need a salesperson and a capability doc and jump on an airplane and go great, I'm away? Or is there a lot of hoops that people need to be wary of even before they get to that stage?
Speaker 3:to be wary of even before they get to that stage. Look, I'd love to say it's the former. Jump on a plane and sell some product. But I think all of our businesses mostly know that business is a bit more complex to navigate than that. And you're right. A lot of New Zealand exporters choose their first market as Australia because it does feel like a similar environment and culture and I think sometimes we think, oh, that's going to make it an easier first step. Depending on what sector you're in and what product you're in, it can be more complex than what you've anticipated. So what we help you do is to really think about all those complexities and make sure you're as best prepared as possible before you go into that market.
Speaker 3:Nzte has worked with thousands of companies. We've built up what we call our know-how know-who, which means that we're about trying to wrap around you, to de-risk those strategies. So I would advise anyone to you know first of all, jump on my NZTE, have a look at the market guide for Australia. It's going to give you some very good first pointers. Typically, what we see is customers venture beyond and into more complex markets. It takes more money, more time and often requires more presence in market to actually crack the success that they desire. We're often overly ambitious and we underprepare for those markets.
Speaker 2:Now you touched on a very good point because so far from a business, I can utilize your website to get the information I can come to you to de-risk. Is the service you provide a subscription service, or is it something that you guys customize depending on who comes to you?
Speaker 3:It's a really interesting question. We're not a subscription service, so let me talk to you a little bit about the expertise and how NZTE works. So we have 700 staff across 47 countries. 37 of those are international offices and 10 in New Zealand, so we have a really strong global and local presence. Now those teams include customer managers, trade commissioners, business development managers and then this very extensive network of expertise, supplier and contacts that we can work with to wrap around a company. We work more intensively with what we call a Focus 1000 group of customers. Those are customers that we can see, you know, real ambition for growth. They are in a sector that is probably most likely to grow. For example, we prioritize sectors such as and often within that deep tech is growing quite rapidly healthcare, renewable energy, robotics, viticulture and sustainable innovation, but we also heavily support people around advanced technology manufacturing F&B. So, with 1,000, we work more intensively with the customer managers and in-market, but we work with, in total, about 5,000 businesses and in various ways, often more light touch or through platforms like myNZTE, wow.
Speaker 2:So that's a very big group with a diverse range of skill sets.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:And on a recent podcast I did. We spoke to Peter McCormick who spoke about if he wanted to launch into a new country. You guys are in most of the countries that people are exporting to at this stage and it's more of a network of facilitators to give advice to move forward. Now, let's say we're talking to a business owner. What is one or two of the key fundamentals they should have covered off before they even reach out to you? Is there one or two things that they should think about ticking those boxes to get the best out of utilization of NZTE partnership?
Speaker 3:I think one of the best things that organizations can be thinking about is do they really understand the total addressable market? So what is the opportunity that they are going after? And then you know this is where the marketer in me comes out what's your value proposition and how is it going to resonate in market? So that product market fit is very important and it speaks to that point that you mentioned earlier about jumping over the ditch to.
Speaker 3:Australia and expecting success right. That piece is really critical. Now NZTE can come in and absolutely wrap around to ensure that people can get as ready as possible for that. One of the things we do first of all when we start an engagement with a customer is a deep discovery. So you know, we are looking at your value proposition, we're looking at your governance that you've got placed around, that we're looking do you understand your financials and your cost structures? Looking at all those critical ingredients that really, whether you're an exporter or you're selling in New Zealand, you need to have a very strong understanding on. And then what we do is agree with the customer the areas where we think we can add the most value, and it's really a partnership. If a company comes to us and is very open to ideas and support and coaching, those are the companies that get the most value out of our network of people. Some of the things where we wrap around those types of companies is things like providing them with market research and insight, so we have access to some very good data in that space.
Speaker 3:We work on the export strategy, as I spoke about, and channel development. Regulatory and legal guidance is really important. I'm just talking earlier about the tariffs and the impact, how to navigate things like that. You know, through COVID it was supporting exporters on their supply chain, investment readiness and capital raising. I mean, that's a big one for New Zealand businesses as they look to scale. And also you know we're part of the New Zealand Inc ecosystem so sometimes we can't help you but someone like an MFAT or an MPI might be the best connection point. So we help you kind of navigate through that system. But yeah, really we're here to try and help you get as ready as possible, help you de-risk your strategy to save time and money. Ultimately.
Speaker 2:So I mean, first of all, that sounds fascinating. It sounds like there's a real partnership and a real connection in de-risking. To make that move Does the NZT partnership. If I move to Australia and it's successful, I can then just utilize you again to leapfrog to the next country. It's not just a framework to do it once off, because every country is different obviously.
Speaker 2:So we've got different challenges and, depending on the business that you work with, do I need, is there a checklist on your website for me to say, cool, I've got investment, I've got my strategy, I've got my value proposition, because obviously, if we're dealing with NZT, you guys got a big pool of expertise and I want to make sure I look good as well. I'm coming, I've got $100,000. I've got a salesperson. Do you have a checklist that I need to go through? Is that something you work with me, one-on-one to make sure I have?
Speaker 3:Great question. We definitely have a thing called Export Essentials, which is on our MyNZTE platform that you can work through at your own rate and that is kind of like a checklist. Have you got all those things ready? If you don't, there's tools and guidance on how to get prepared for that. A lot of companies come to us with some of those things ready and some blind spots and some areas where they actively have a specific need that they want us to wrap around them.
Speaker 3:So, yes, again, encourage you to have a look at that, think about that work and, as you say, as companies choose to jump into different markets, often they've started to build that muscle and that groundwork's really done. It's about fine tuning and tweaking it for each of the markets. But look, we're very customer centric and wrap around the customer. So often customers are in multiple markets when they are connecting with us and we may work most intensively on the biggest opportunity at that point of time. So it's not necessarily a sequential process. We may work in multiple markets with a company at once or we may focus first on the biggest opportunity and then move to the next, and that's really a conversation that happens between the customer manager, the in-market team and the customer themselves.
Speaker 2:Because I like what you said. Before having a marketing head-on, If I'm a business in New Zealand, I've got an idea of what my customer is, what my value proposition to them is, and I'm assuming in most cases they're going well.
Speaker 2:My customer's the same in Australia, my value proposition's the same. My brand should be the same. Do you see that? Do you see not just business owners making the assumption that all customers are the same in different countries, but you having to adapt and work with them on changing that value proposition? Or are they pretty similar?
Speaker 3:I think it depends on the maturity of the company or even, potentially, the entrepreneur that you're working with. You know, sometimes we'll be working with business owners that are onto their third startup.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 3:They know exactly what they need to do and we need to move at pace and really wrap around them to help support them rather than to get in their way.
Speaker 3:Other companies are very much more earlier on in that journey. When you look at New Zealand businesses, a lot of them are five people and less, right as you'll know. So you've got a person trying to wear multiple hats to do that and our job is to really just wrap around and sometimes fill that gap or help, guide and support them through that. One of the things I really love about what we do and I hear when I go out on customer visits is the connections we can make between customers. So that might be a young CEO leading a business through a period of growth and matching them with a more mature, experienced CEO to help them. You know, from a coaching perspective and a support perspective. It might be matching a customer that is facing the same problem in their supply chain in Japan, you know, in F&B with another customer that has a similar challenge. So that kind of peer-to-peer network piece is really valuable and can be well matched to wherever that business is on their exporting journey.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's incredible. So one other thing just to touch on, because of your background, obviously, if I've got a product and I'm a manufacturer and I am exporting overseas, nzt offer a wealth of knowledge in terms of understanding the market, the connections. How important is it for a business owner? Or how does NZT fit in when I'm looking at distribution or factories or that sort of setup, if I need to produce in those countries, not just sell?
Speaker 3:Great question. Look, our in-market staff are incredibly knowledgeable. Sometimes this means that we are not only leveraging our beachheads. So you know, we might have, for example, in America, someone that is an expert in how to engage with a Walmart or a Target and can really help you understand what does that path to entry look like to get into that market. Equally, we hold our networks and look after them really well. So if you're looking for a distributor, you know we work very hard, the people and the contacts we have to help connect you with the right people where possible, and I think that speaks to that know piece Right. So you know there is a lot that you can find on the Internet. What you can't necessarily find easily is the right people to speak to about the right problem at the right time. So, yes, we absolutely do that in terms of helping people connect with their distributors, and that's an important part of what our team will be doing day in and day out.
Speaker 2:You mentioned beachhead advisors. For those listening that don't know what that means, as you said, you've got a vast group of people behind. What is a beachhead advisor and what should I be looking for from a beachhead advisor?
Speaker 3:So a beachhead advisor is a specialist expert that has, you know, either a working history or worked in governance in a particular area. Be that you know it could be leadership, it could be marketing, could be AI, could be about FMCG go-to-market strategies. We're really lucky that in New Zealand and around the world we have people that want to give back to other businesses. So often these are people that have already been successful exporters and they're giving their time and their efforts and their energy to really help New Zealand exporters grow.
Speaker 3:I was actually at a meeting with about 20 of our beachheads in Auckland yesterday and just the energy and passion for New Zealand, for the ambition of the government around doubling the value of exports. They're really doing this because they believe in the country and they want to make a better tomorrow. So, you know, instead of our team of 700 trying to be experts on everything, we leverage that model to bring in the right person at the right time to really wrap around our customers. So I mean it's a fantastic concept that works incredibly well for us and often also means that their customers, hearing a fresh voice, can challenge them a bit more intentionally and specifically and also really help them with proven strategies, so I think they're a very valuable part of what we offer.
Speaker 2:Sounds huge because they've done it before, right.
Speaker 3:They've done it before yeah, and time and time again, time and time again. Yes, so that's brilliant.
Speaker 2:So they're obviously there to help us find those trapdoors, to make them more successful, get there quicker, or to de-risk, as you say, which is so valuable.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's right.
Speaker 2:Especially when it's so scary to make that leap forward. What do you wish more New Zealand businesses understood before entering the international markets, and what are some of the common assumptions or blind spots that you think you could help them before engaging? What do you think you wish they knew?
Speaker 3:I think we touched on earlier. It is often the idea that I can just take my product, deliver it in market and I'll have the same success that I have had here, or even maybe the same success that you may have had in that first market. You know, if that was.
Speaker 3:Australia.
Speaker 3:When you look at a region like NAM, you know what we hear is you really need to have a lot of presence in market.
Speaker 3:So you know, sometimes one of the things we can help with through our International Growth Fund is to actually help organizations to fund presence in market, be that the right salesperson. I heard recently from our North America team who came down to New Zealand and they talked about the importance of having the right salesperson and the right incentives very incentive-driven, in that market. So if you want someone to go out and sell your product, you really need to understand the cultural norms in which you're operating. So the regular ones are that product market fit, the timeline, the amount of time it takes, the investment and the presence in market. I think in some of our Asian countries as well, it's about the cultural norms of doing business that many would not really understand. But you quickly, once you've been in market, get a sense that things are done differently here and the importance of building those trusted relationships with suppliers or partners. A lot of that is face to face and takes quite a long time to build that relationship.
Speaker 3:So that's probably the key one, I'm sure there's many, many more, but it's a tricky one to navigate that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Now you touched on something new, because what I first picked up on is you provide the educational platform, you provide knowledge, you provide a network, but you've just mentioned funding, so I've got probably a lot of listeners going hang on. Nzte offer funding for global presence. What sort of funding models does NZTE offer, and who's that for?
Speaker 3:So when we work. So you know this is a very contestable fund that is highly targeted to very well-prepared companies and we work with them to identify, you know, would they be the right customers to be able to seek that funding and support? And it requires a lot of investment and time in terms of making sure you've got a really great project plan and business plan and then we work alongside them over the period of time in which that fund's available to them to make sure that they're hitting those milestones and really delivering on that and really delivering on that. And, as I said, you know we've got customers that have used that to help them get a person in market.
Speaker 3:One of the examples I have is SIN7. So in March 2021, nzte provided an expansion IGF, which is the International Growth Fund I was talking about, to help SIN7 expand into North America following the COVID impact on retail and so for them, this facilitated their growth and they went from $20.6 million in FY20 to over $90 million four years later. Now that IGF was just one part of what we did to wrap around them. But you know, funding is a big challenge for New Zealand businesses as we go into expanding, and this is one way in which we can help, support and wrap around our customers.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a really good success story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's an amazing company, yeah.
Speaker 2:If we're talking to an audience that, as you say, you offer random, not sorry random. If we're talking to an audience that, as you say, you offer random, not sorry random, varied services depending on what they need. If there's one statement that we want to go to the market for, when to call the Ghostbusters, when and what does the business look like to be ideal for NZTE to help them take the next step, when should I be calling you?
Speaker 3:Well, I think the first thing I'd say is see what you can find easily on the website. There just is a heap of resource on that site and you might be able to help yourself and not actually have to make the call. But I think the biggest thing there is you know, we don't just help the super big companies. We really do work with a lot of the smaller startups that have ambition to grow, ideally, are at that stage where they're starting to see sales, so they're starting to commercialize their product. They can start to see what markets they're going to go after. Those are the companies where we can really start to add immediate value.
Speaker 3:And I think if you're coming across any roadblock in terms of exporting, be that you're unsure about your pricing, you need help finding a distributor. You don't know what you don't know. Reach out, talk to the team about the problem and be open to the different ways in which they can help give you guidance. So, yeah, we're there to support all New Zealand exporters in different levels, in different ways. But I would just say, if you reach out because you have come across a problem, we'll do our very best to wrap around and help you.
Speaker 2:That's brilliant. Now there's going to be a few listeners that probably want me to ask this question. Let's say I've got my product, I'm doing well. I want to go overseas because I see a potential market fit. My value problem is pretty good. Do I need a lot of money? Do I have to come cashed up to this meeting saying I'm going to invest this money over there, or can I come to you and say is there an opportunity?
Speaker 2:even before I look at my bank account, do I have to have a lot of money in my bank to even think about moving.
Speaker 3:I think you really do need to understand your business model.
Speaker 3:So some business models are going to take a lot more money than others, right, and I think, understanding deeply, or as best as you can, what's the opportunity and market, it's all about understanding what is that opportunity and the reality of that growth.
Speaker 3:So, you know, as we work with our teams around the globe, we can see particular sectors that you know are stronger in particular markets, and we're going to really wrap around those where we believe actually there is a really great value proposition here. There is a market that is saying we want these types of products, you know, and if a firm is getting investment from VCs or private equity, that's a pretty good signal that you know that there's a good opportunity sitting around this product and with the team that are leading that business. So we're looking at all those things. I mean, I think it does really help to have money behind you or at least a very deep understanding of how you are going to get into growth and into revenue growth. But a lot of these technology companies and deep technology companies are pre-rev for a long time, right, and then they will suddenly go gangbusters and really go through the roof. So again, I think they really understand their product and what they're offering for the market. That's really key.
Speaker 2:Now, if I'm looking because of your background as well, being in the digital space, is it easier to sell digital services overseas than it is the tangible products like manufacturing, because you could be sold online by just launching a website over there. Do you see that being a lot easier, a lot less roadblocks for digital services to grow, or is it about the same?
Speaker 3:they move a lot quicker to market. They have the ability to move a lot quicker to market. Um, one of the complexities is actually they are borderless, so where do they start? So one of the things you actually they are borderless, so where do they start? So one of the things you can see is a very broad I wouldn't even call it targeting, but there's broad opportunity which can actually be a hindrance versus a company that is very focusing in on a market with very specific branding, very specific sales drives.
Speaker 3:So you know, it's different challenges in that space. And, look, I think just understanding the I suppose that revenue model and where is the money going to come from in the end is critically important. You know, as I said, these companies are sometimes getting 30, 50 customers to start off with, but in order to keep scaling that business, they really need to be able to see where that revenue growth is going to come from and how they're going to grow that audience. So we work with quite a few technology companies, gaming companies. A lot of them are going offshore to look at the trade shows that are happening in that space. Yeah, and we do have to work with them and think about their business in a different way, so it forces us to stay on our game.
Speaker 3:that's for sure, and that's why we have those sector models where we have some deep specialists that can really wrap around the kind of tech and services, for example, versus the traditional more food and beverage, meat and produce, et cetera.
Speaker 2:And are you seeing any market shift in terms of what's working in the past versus what's working now in terms of the industry, Because obviously we'd think tech's pretty big right now versus manufacturing? But do you see a shift at all in demand or need?
Speaker 3:It's a really interesting question. I mean, certainly we're seeing a lot more of the deep tech biotech, agri-tech, health tech coming through. You know the merging of technology coming in with you know manufacturing technology coming in to make every industry more efficient means that whether you're in technology or not, you need to really understand what technology and what AI is going to do for your business and what role it has to play. We're currently doing quite a lot of work around supporting our customers on AI. Do you understand what opportunity it provides for you? Do you have a plan and a strategy for that? But interesting, when you look at the UK NZFTA that was, I think, just come a year old you know a lot of the growth in the UK and certainly over in the EU has come from the likes of kiwifruit and seafood and meat and apples. So you know we're a country where a lot of our backbone is through the agriculture. You know food and fibre and that's a really important part of what we do. I was at Field Days last week.
Speaker 3:I was telling you so amazing to see even the innovation that is coming through some of those traditional areas. You know something to be really proud of, I think our work in this space.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. Now I think Field, as I said, just looking at the industries that were there and the growth, I think there was a positive vibe, so we spoke to a few people there. But if we just look at the different sectors and, as you mentioned AI before, do you see AI making more of an impact in one than the other or do you think it's just going to affect everyone eventually?
Speaker 3:I think it's going to affect everyone eventually. But absolutely we're seeing new businesses come out of the result of AI technology and you know what that can do. But I really think you know, for example, carepatron, who we work with. Actually they're revolutionising healthcare with AI, you know, and we work really closely with them. That's an example of a product, a system that's, you know, really going to take off as a result of that technology. But if I think about, you know, wearing my previous hat as the GM digital and data at NZTE.
Speaker 3:You know AI is going to lift personal productivity. I think it's going to deliver organizational value, and if your listeners are not already educating themselves around AI, they should start today. Open up a co-pilot, a chat, gpt, and start to play with it, because I think the more that you engage and learn personally, the more you're going to understand what that might mean for your business in the future and there's a lot of reports that talk about, you know, the future of the workforce there's going to be people without AI skills and people with AI skills, so it's a real advantage, I think, to be on that journey now.
Speaker 2:I also see, because we're touching on AI, you also help businesses maybe attract investment as well. Correct me if I'm wrong. Would you see AI being a criteria that investors are looking at to say this business isn't on board AI yet, so we're not going to invest?
Speaker 3:I probably couldn't speak in detail to that right now, but I think over time what we will see is, as part of investors wanting to understand business models, they're obviously going to be looking at those revenues and costs right, and AI provides an opportunity in some cases to drive revenue but in many cases, to really streamline those efficiencies. So I would encourage businesses to be thinking about it from that perspective. Certainly, we are seeing a lot of investment going into those technology, deep technology areas. So those are the types of businesses right now that are getting a lot of interest from, you know, venture capitalists, etc. Looking with sharp eyes on them. So if you're in that, space.
Speaker 3:I think you know you're in for a ride, but certainly you know you should be thinking about how you're going to track that investment in there.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Now, because you've got so many people in different markets. If we had to paint a picture for the listeners or the viewers, what does the export market look like right now? Is it frickle? Is it an open gate for New Zealand businesses? Because one thing I've learned is dealing with a lot of business owners. We're not very good at speaking very loudly about ourselves. We're quite humble. Here in New Zealand there's a few businesses I didn't even know existed and you go and meet them and they're huge. What do you see that market being like?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, I'm an optimist generally and myself and many of the people around me are out in market often, and what I love to hear back is the optimism. Despite a lot of global uncertainty, there are real opportunities out there for New Zealand exporters. It's really about where do we take advantage of those and how do we put ourselves in the best position to do that, and that's where I think NZTE can really wrap around our customers. I was in China recently when the tariffs were being announced yes.
Speaker 3:Fascinating time to be in market and a great example of the continued volatility that our customers are facing. And two customers that I met with, both in food and beverage, were getting increased orders as a result of the tariff situation because it was impacting you know, their American competitors, so you know there's reasons to be really optimistic. You know the trade agreements, the work that the government are doing. Travelling internationally and really working hard to seek out those exporting opportunities gives us real hope for New Zealand exporters for sure.
Speaker 2:You've given me lots of reasons to want to partner with NZT. It sounds like you've got the full wraparound service the network, the funding. Are there businesses that don't fit the model?
Speaker 3:If you're a business that hasn't proved it. You know it's kind of pre-commercialization, stillmercialization, still thinking you're validating your product, you're still in research, you aren't actually at the point of being ready to go to market and sell. Maybe you don't have any sales at all. Those businesses are probably a bit too early for us. We're really focused on helping you select the right market to enter into, helping you with that market entry and then helping you expand as a business. So that's more where we play in our sweet spot.
Speaker 2:Now, you did mention that you help look at the business model, the value proposition. If you look let's say I came partnered with you and you looked at my business and you identified three or four things that were missing. With you and you looked at my business and you identified three or four things that were missing do you actually help me develop those or?
Speaker 3:do you put?
Speaker 2:partners or people with me to develop or to plug those holes well, a bit a bit of both.
Speaker 3:So, um, some things, absolutely, you know my team can work directly with people and customers on doing that, so so we might bring in another customer manager. So most of the team the customer facing team that work with NZTE, are people that have worked in exporting or have had very strong commercial backgrounds. These are people that have come into the public sector to help give back, driven by a higher purpose, really. So there's a lot of expertise in different areas that sits across the organization and maybe not just specifically with the customer manager that you're working directly with. So we'll work closely with you to help you, um, get some of that work done. But it really has to be customer led.
Speaker 3:Yes, so you know you can lead a horse to water. Um, you know that partnership is so critical and the engagement with the customer. Sometimes the timing's not right and customers actually realize they can't consume all that, they can't focus on all that right now, and that's okay. You know we can come back and wrap around them at the right time, but we might have given them a little nugget of something to go away and work on. I spoke earlier about. You know there are events that you can go to where you can get a lot of help on templates or kind of go-tos the beachhead sessions that we run. You know that can really help a company work through developing a brand or a brand proposition or a brand story, for example. You know there can be quite practical hands-on tools and I suppose, value that we can add in that space.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Now Peter did mention to me two things that I never knew. Was he got a beach advisor over to talk about tariffs to make sure he was set up for that?
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 2:And that was done before the tariffs changed. So when it changed for him, he was already set up to make it work for him.
Speaker 2:So he's like I'm always going to stay ahead. The other thing he did was he identified that Amazon was a platform for him to grow and to sell overseas, and you guys provided him with a specialist to teach him how to utilize that. Are there any other? These are trapped tools that we don't know. That NZT offer Because when I looked at, as you said, it's a wraparound service which could mean so many things. Are there any one or two things you'd like to highlight that we probably just don't know about? That offer huge value.
Speaker 3:There is so many. I love that you've called out tariffs, because I think it is affecting most of our exporters right now, and a lot of our exporters actually are being quite cautious. Appropriately, they're not jumping into changing strategies or necessarily moving their manufacturing. They are sitting and doing the thinking about what their approach might be, and I love that and that's such a great example. Because we're set up in sectors, I think every sector has their own challenge, and so we actually really do offer quite a broad range of things that we can jump in and help, and we spoke earlier about the work we're doing on AI.
Speaker 3:That's a real need right now a lot of demand for our AI classes and helping people understand how to start. Previously it was supply chain, so it really depends on the sector and what's the specific challenge and also what's going on in the market in terms of what people need. But I suppose one of the most common value adds that I hear is when we start early in a relationship with a customer manager and we do a thing called a fresh thinking session, and this is where you have a beachhead, come in and really get the customer thinking about their business model, you know, getting ready for exporting. It's quite deep and intensive and I hear a lot of positive feedback from customers that go through that process in terms of the kind of light bulb moments.
Speaker 3:Ah, that's the thing I need to go and focus on, and then how do we work together to help the customer feel supported in delivering that? So that's probably one of the ones I hear the most about, for sure that's great to get that positive feedback yeah last thing, just to cover off.
Speaker 2:Let's say I'm out there, I've got my business ready. What's the step? How do I? I engage NZTE. Is it something that I have to fund? Is it just a phone call? And everyone's different? Where's the starting point?
Speaker 3:Go to my NZTE register yourself and you can book a 30-minute call with a customer advisor. So that customer advisor is going to be asking you and understanding your business. They're going to want to know about your ambition, about your product, and then they'll think about what's the best way to wrap around this customer. It might be a tactical, one-off engagement that is needed. It might be a quick 30-minute phone call with one of our business development managers in market. Or it might be that actually we need to wrap more intensively around this company. They're really ready for exporting, there's huge opportunity for growth, market. Or it might be that actually we need to wrap more intensively around this company. They're really ready for exporting, there's huge opportunity for growth and we work them with them in that focus 1000. So that's where I would start.
Speaker 3:Articulate the problem, articulate the opportunity and, and then we go from there cool.
Speaker 2:You mentioned it before. So I'm going to ask when I'm looking at expanding to a different country you mentioned having a marketing head on how important is it to pre-market or evaluate your customer before going in terms of your brand, your communication and what you put to market? Can you launch a new market pre-marketing or do you see the benefit of marketing to a specific segment before taking to identify if there's a gap? So you did mention that you help identify if the market's right. How do you do that? Is it launching some campaigns in market to?
Speaker 2:see the reaction.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question. It could be a couple of things. So, you know, we, we sit with a customer and understand. What do they know? What have they tested? What are the insights they can bring? Uh, we have a market research team that can also bring really rich insights. It could be, you know, detailed information around um, what's happening in the honey market in Singapore in a specific area or retail space. So there's lots of things that we can bring.
Speaker 3:The customer manager can connect with the BDM in market. What have you seen there? Talk to us about the competitors. What's the biggest challenge you think we'll be facing this company? You know, even down to helping the customer understand what the supermarket aisle looks like in terms of how their packaging will stand out versus the competition. So you know it can absolutely be right down to the how do we launch? How do we be very focused? What's the account we're going to target? How are we going to test or research that specific brand and value proposition? But it could also be much more light touch. What are the early indications that would say, yes, you're on the right track or no, you're not? There's lots of levers we can pull there and I think that's where that in-market beachhead can be really relevant. So specialists that have lived and breathed in that market, in that sector, has seen the problems that exporters make time and time again and half an hour 45 minutes with them can be absolute gold. So yeah, lots of different ways to do that but 100%.
Speaker 3:If you haven't got an understanding of the market, you're going into the complexity of that market how your brand sits along competitors, your business model, in terms of how you're going to make money through that market then it's going to be pretty challenging, I would think, to deliver a successful outcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you certainly sound like the right partner I need to launch, though. Cool yeah, that's a wrap, unless there's any other thing that you think would benefit the listeners. I mean, we've covered off everything, from the knowledge, the learning, the network, the funding, the beachhead advisors, the full wraparound service, and I think what stood out to me is the de-risking. Just to me, it can be so exciting thing I can launch and I'm going to make all this money and all the success, but there's so much risk, but the risk I think what I've taken away from today is not understanding your customer and getting that.
Speaker 2:So my last question for you is how often do you see it going wrong? Someone's gone overseas and they've done what they think with their brand, misunderstood the customer and then had to come back to you and go. Please help. I should have been in market. I should have pre-tested it. Do you see it going wrong? Very often.
Speaker 3:I mean you do and you know by going wrong it can mean you pull out of that market. We've absolutely seen that. We've seen customers then go back in again with you know more money. Then go back in again with you know more money, more scar tissue, better preparation and you know delivering better results but you know, ultimately customers, this is their business.
Speaker 3:you know where they want to go. We can give them, we can absolutely give them guidance and insight. But where we really aim to add value is try to get very focused, um, on the greatest opportunity where we can wrap around them and what's the plan to deliver that. So you know, if the customer's up for that, then I think, as you say, that kind of knowledge of working with thousands of customers we can bring to the forefront to help them save time and hopefully save money and, and you know, deliver a great story for New Zealand and hopefully deliver real value to you know, the future of New Zealand tomorrow. So you know to all your listeners it's amazing what they're doing with their businesses. You know no one goes in this for an easy job. It is hard graft and my team get out of bed every day to help support them and aim for that kind of better tomorrow for New Zealand.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Thank you so much, Philippa. Business owners out there. If you are looking to take on the next stage, jump on to the NZT website, get their advice and reach out. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:That's that. Thanks for listening to. We Do B2B by Blue Ocean. Now brace for CTAs. If you want to join and grow the community, make sure to subscribe. Wherever your eyes and ears absorb information, don't forget to switch on notifications so you know when the latest episodes drop. And for more B2B goodness, be sure to follow Blue Ocean, the B2B agency, on LinkedIn. Now look, you know how this next piece works. The more reviews we get, the faster this thing grows. So please do for us what you hope your customers would do for you Leave a review and share your thoughts. Let's stay connected and keep the B2B marketing conversation going.