How does a New Zealand business win clients and partners in Australia?
By being recommended, not just by being nearby. Australia is the obvious next market for most New Zealand firms, and it is close, familiar and open. But Australian buyers are spoilt for local suppliers, and a firm from across the Tasman that nobody has vouched for is easy to pass over. A referral from someone both sides trust is the fastest way to be taken seriously.
Isn't Australia basically the same market?
Close, but not the same. It has about five times the population, spread across very different state capitals, each with its own business circles. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth can feel like four separate markets, and what wins work in one does not automatically carry to the next. New Zealand firms used to a smaller market, where everyone knows everyone, often underestimate how much harder it is to be noticed.
Does being so close help?
A great deal, practically. The flight from Auckland to Sydney takes around three hours, eastern Australia is usually two hours behind New Zealand, and citizens of each country can live and work in the other. A meeting in Brisbane on Tuesday and home for dinner on Wednesday is entirely normal.
What closeness does not give you is an introduction. Many New Zealanders live and work in Australia, yet a Wellington firm can still have no idea who the right buyer is in Melbourne.
What do Australian buyers look for?
Proof that you deliver, and a name they recognise behind you. Australian business is direct and moves quickly once it trusts you. Getting to that point usually takes either a track record in Australia or someone they respect saying you are worth a meeting. The second is far quicker to arrange.
And Australian firms looking at New Zealand?
The opposite lesson applies. New Zealand is smaller and more connected, so reputation travels fast in both directions. An Australian firm that arrives through a trusted local contact is welcomed. One that arrives with a hard sell soon finds that the people who matter have already heard about it.
Is this a referral group?
It is a referral network built on introductions. Members ask for a referral to a particular kind of client, partner or supplier on the other side of the Tasman, and the host thinks about who they actually know. What comes back is one personal introduction, written to both people, saying why they should talk. Nobody is set a referral quota, and an introduction that would not help both sides is simply not made.
The Australia-New Zealand Business Bridge
The Australia-New Zealand Business Bridge exists to make those introductions. It is part of My Most Trusted, a network where people meet only through someone who knows them both.
Larri Wallbridge holds the New Zealand end. She is the founder of Fit for Business, with more than 30 years across business, leadership, talent and organisational transformation. The Australian host seat is open.
If the other side of the ditch is in your plans, start with a simple question: who is the one person you would most like to meet there, and who might already know them?
The Australia-New Zealand Business Bridge
What Australians and New Zealanders both call the Tasman Sea, as if two thousand kilometres of ocean were a gutter between neighbours.
Take a tour of the Australia-New Zealand Bridge