He wants his side to play with aggression and perhaps forget the fact their opponents took just two wickets for 463 runs during the T20 series.
Zimbabwe were hopelessly outmatched during the hit-and-giggle format and will probably find the three-game ODI series an enormous challenge.
Game one gets under way in Dunedin tomorrow.
Sawyer wants more of what he saw from his lot during the T20 series.
"The girls that got a hit did it really, really well," he said.
"The most pleasing thing for me was, even though we were only one down, we managed to get pretty much 200 on two occasions, and then I think in that third game was actually our best powerplay, so more than 10 an over.
"So for me it was more about that intent, and I thought the girls did really well with the bat, in particular, and with the ball.
"I think to nearly bowl them out twice was a pretty good achievement."
In a funny way, the White Ferns are victims of their own success. So few players got a bat during the series.
Opener Izzy Gaze posted scores of 66 not out, 85 not out and an undefeated 38 from 20 balls when they were chasing a paltry 65 to win.
Her shift to the top of the T20 order looks permanent.
"Yeah, look, it’s something we’ve spoken about a lot to Izzy leading into this, and I think you saw that during Super Smash that it is a shift that we’re going to make," Sawyer said.
"We’ve had that discussion with Suzie [Bates] as well. So Izzy will go to the top of the order, and hopefully she’s there for the World Cup.
"There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before that, but that’s a role that she’s going to potentially play for us.
"I think you can see that she’s got the intent.
"We feel that, especially in England, the scores are going to be really high and we need someone to go out there and do that for us.
"Suzie will play a role for us in the middle order, and we feel that that strengthens that up as well. So, yeah, I think we’ve got the best of both worlds."
Bates is back training with the White Ferns after missing the domestic season following a quadricep tear.
White Ferns opener Georgia Plimmer has been ruled out of the ODI series against Zimbabwe with a shoulder injury. Plimmer sustained the injury while training during the recent T20 series against Zimbabwe.
"She’s got quite a bit of pain in her shoulder. If that settles down, and she meets her return to plays, then yeah, she’ll be back for South Africa."
Otago’s Bella James, who replaced her in the T20 squad, will remain with the side.
The White Ferns will play South Africa in five T20s later this month and three ODIs in April.
The big prize is the T20 World Cup in England in June and July. That is the focus for the year.
