Formally it means that $$ f(y) \geq f(x_0) + z' (y - x_0) \ \ \ \ \ \forall y \in domf. $$
If you are looking for a geometrical intuition, you can see that the inequality can be written also as $$ \left(y - x_0, f(y) - f(x_0) \right) \left(\begin{array}{c} -z \\\ 1 \end{array} \right) \geq 0 $$ which tells you that the epigraph of $f$ is contained in halfspace defined by the hyperplane that passes by $(x_0,f(x_0))$ and is normal to vector $(-z, 1)$.