Anthony Zhahalkowicz

I usually use services like G2 or ask my colleagues, as well as trying trial versions of different products. You can also ask for a demo of a specific tool, play around with the pricing and try to negotiate. Also, trial period is cool because you can compare the results between different services and use only those that perform well.

Having tons of experience in consulting people from different industries on sales strategy and automation tools formulated the following important stuff I always check. You need to properly define WHO your leads and clients are. Analyze your product(s) and/or services, create Buyer Personas, Value propositions: they can be different from lead title x or lead title y based on the headaches they might have. What are your desirable KPIs? What are the channels of communication? How many people can you afford to pay (manual vs automated approach), what's your monthly budget for the tools? Then having this info you can create customized A/B texts and upload them to sales automation tools.

I'd start from reading a lot about all of the pieces of the gamedev puzzle. You need to make a proper selection of what you wanna do. Try to analyze job placements on various platforms, understand if it's smth that you'd not regret doing in 2-5-7-10 years from. Take a look at the salaries, follow SMEs from well-known companies, reach out to them and ask directly. They have tons of expertise and experience. Visit conferences where you can ask people from gamedev industry on how to better start.

Use social media a lot. Once your selection process of the best artwork is done, share it with the experts from the industry, engage and tag with them posting your work on linkedin, ig, meta, twitter, artstation, etc. The more engagement you have - comments, likes, shares, - the more visibility you have.

Always think of what would you be unhappy with if a person you do not know knocks your linkedin door. And do not do that when you make new connections. Do not use walls of texts in your messages, explain why you want to connect, if you're a BDM in game development, do not sell everything your company does. Instead, do a due diligence, find the pain points, bottle necks, be in the shoes of a doctor, not a guy who is chasing money willing to close the deals. Become friends first, then - partners. Discuss general topics first, not business.

do not only what you must do as your job requirements and daily routine - you should always try to do more than expected and go an extra mile to be considered for a promotion. Write constantly on social media (linkedin is a good case), be followed, engage with your fellow colleagues from the industry, seek support from outside as well. You can always try to test something, that could lead to org improvement - experiment with that and if that was a good outcome - you'll always find support in your manager's eyes, which could later on lead to a promotion.