Preparation = Success

Being ready for the Opportunities that will take you to the next level.

The videogame industry is currently going through a consolidation period where mergers and acquisitions are happening every day. The industry has benefited from the pandemic and resulted in an abundance of money in the coffers of large Publishers / Holding companies. This abundance of cash is being used, in part, to make large investments or acquisitions of promising or established game companies.

This means Lunar Owl Consulting (the company I’m at) has been sitting in discussions centered around these big Publishers / Holding Companies purchasing the developers in our portfolio. This is great for business savvy developers or studios that use an Agency/Consultant/or an experienced entity in M&As/Closing Deals. However, the thought occurred to me during one of these meetings, there are many developers that are not business savvy (a large percentage) and/or also don’t use the aid of those who are. This means there are a lot of developers that miss out or lose out on opportunities. Opportunities they could otherwise win if they put more thought and effort forward.

The most common mistake we see Developers make when opportunities arise is being unprepared. They wing the opportunity; they take a laissez-faire approach in discussions with those who are intrigued or interested in giving them an opportunity. An opportunity that could take them to the next level. For the most part, they don’t even understand they aren’t coming prepared to the meeting and are left wondering why the other party goes quiet or never calls them back. They don’t do research into the company, find out who the stakeholders & decision makers are, play the games they’ve made or published, reach out and talk to the developers who have been acquired or taken investment from the Publisher / Holding Company, or tailor the pitch to the potential partner. Some don’t even follow-up!

Doing all the above will increase the chances you will get called back and lead to advancement to the next stage. When you take the time to prepare for a meeting, it gets noticed, and leads to results. You want to impress the other party and leave an impression. It’s good to keep in mind they are speaking to other parties about the same opportunity; whether it’s a W4H project, outsourcing work, an investment, an acquisition, or Publishing your game — they are in talks with other studios. If those competitors do a better job of pitching and standing out, you won’t be signing on the dotted line with said Potential Party. And believe me; there are competitors who are always going above and beyond to secure deals and get results.

My advice for aspiring Developers or Businesses in general when there is a new opportunity on the table;

1. Change Your Mindset: Winging It vs. Preparation & Winning Them Over; The first step is to understand preparation is essential for a good meeting and to impressing your audience. Instead of winging it and hoping it goes well, you want to take the time to understand your potential partner and strategize on how to win them over.
2. Do your research; find out everything about the Potential Partner. Where they have offices, who are the stakeholders, who is joining the meeting, who they have worked with in the past, the games they have invested in/made/or Published, their vision, their interests, etc. Compile a document with all this information and share it with team members who will be in the meeting or are involved in the Opportunity. Every member going into the meeting should have a good idea of who they are speaking to.
3. Tailor your pitch; After you’ve done your extensive research, tailor the pitch and discussion to the Potential Partner. If you were able to find out whose joining the meeting, see if you can find out about their interests and lives, and weave it into the conversation. Take some time to get to know the other party outside of the business context. If you’re walking them through a presentation, have their logo on the first slide. The information you’re putting forward should reflect what you’ve learned about the party from your extensive research.
4. Find a way to stand out. Come into the meeting with your company or game apparel on. Have the Potential Partners latest game or Company Logo as your virtual background (if on Zoom or a software that allows it). What is unique about your team, your studio, the games you make, the culture — what do people remember most after they’ve met you? Ask your friends, clients, partners, etc what they think to find out. Make sure this unique aspect of your company comes through during the meeting. You want them to remember you and stay top of mind.
5. Right People In the Meeting; Who on your team has the best people skills? It’s possible it’s not the Business Manager/ Founder / CEO or the person that is pitching. Take a good look at your team; is there someone who makes the team feel good, motivates them, inspires them, or makes them laugh. Is there a member who articulates and speaks well and can command a room by speaking? If so, it may be a good idea to have them involved in all Business-related activities going forward. If someone is going to be quiet the whole time, it’s best to omit them or encourage them to talk more. You want the people on the call active and involved.
6. Take the time to get to know them. Have a list of questions prepared based off the extensive research. Ask questions and get them talking. People love to talk about themselves and this will be no different for any Potential Partner you speak to. Asking questions serves two purposes; it allows you to collect important information you can leverage to push the opportunity forward and it makes the other side feel good.
7. Strategy Meeting; Get everyone together prior to the call and discuss the points above. Take the time to walk through the information you’ve gathered, and how you want to present it over the call. Preparing in advance and talking about it with your team will give you a confidence boost when going into the meeting. You can create an Agenda at this meeting, and send it out to the potential partner after. This shows you’ve prepared and taken the time to get to know the other party.
8. Active Recall & Action Item; when the other side has completed a thought, you’ve discussed ideas/concepts in depth, or they’ve given you an information dump — sum up what was said in a couple sentences. Condense the information in your own words and it will show you’ve been listening and understand. At the end of the meeting, summarize the key points discussed, and set actions items. Make sure the other side has committed to an action before getting off the call like sending out an invite for the next meeting. There needs to be a clear next step that pushes the opportunity forward.
9. Take Notes or Record the Meeting; either have someone in the meeting writing the information down or record the meeting through the conference app if possible. Before you meet with them next, you want to have listened to that recording or reviewed the notes. This will help you plan next steps and leverage the information that was shared in the meeting. You will forget important key points without the aid of a recording or written notes. There is an abundance of information that is shared in a 30/60/90 minute call. Our brains are selective with information and on purpose, will omit most of it from our conscious mind. You’ll understand how valuable this is when you start doing it.