Customizing the Spreadsheet with Your Logo

You can do anything you want on the first tab of the spreadsheet (Introduction), including changing the tab name, deleting the contents, organizing them completely differently, absolutely anything you want.

Whenever you download a new version of the app, you can simply copy your customized sheet into the new version’s spreadsheet.

However, do not make changes to anything but the first tab. The other tabs are very specific: the columns and rows can’t change. (If you read querymanifest.json, you’ll see how the data is mapped from query results into the spreadsheet using rows & columns.)

Helping clients run the app for you

When clients book a sales call or consulting engagement with you, you may want to have them gather data and send it to you ahead of the call. The process looks like this:

1. Download the app yourself
2. Put that zip file somewhere that your clients can access it, like on your site
3. Take the link to it, and write an email that makes it easy for your clients to understand the steps they need to take next

Here are the email templates that I use – replace the URL with yours:

Email template for sales calls

Hi! You have just one step left before our sales call. Download our free utility and run it on your desktop:

http://secret.brentozar.com/DataCollector.zip

Extract that in an easy-to-find folder like C:\temp, and then open a command prompt, navigate to that folder, and type:

AppName.exe –s MYSERVERNAME

If you use SQL authentication to connect to the server, you can specify a username & password:

AppName.exe –s MYSERVERNAME –i MYUSERNAME –p MYPASSWORD

It takes about 5-15 minutes to run a bunch of low-overhead, low-priority queries and packages the results up into a zip file. It doesn’t change anything on your server or block queries – it just gathers metrics. I can slice and dice those ahead of our call to give you even better diagnostics. If you get any errors in the app, absolutely no worries – they’ll be logged and sent to me too.

After it runs, go into the Output folder and email me the zip file. (If you’re curious about what’s in it, you’re welcome to look at the results – the more you know about your SQL Server, the better!)

Talk to you soon!

Brent

Email template for consulting engagement

Great! I’ve signed the contract and sent you a signed copy separately.

Here’s your homework:

https://downloads.brentozar.com/checklist.pdf

Reply to this email with your homework, and when we’ve got it, we’ll set up your BrentOzar.com accounts and send your Zoom invites.

We look forward to working with you!

Brent

How I automate those email templates

Time for a little behind-the-scenes advice on how I use automation to handle as many clients as I can, as effectively as possible.

I normally use Calendly.com to let people book free 30-minute sales calls. The form is usually embedded in the bottom of my consulting page. (When I’m booked solid, or on vacation, on the road for a while, I remove that embed temporarily and tell prospects to email me instead.) They get a calendar invite with those instructions.

To take it to the next level, when someone books, I send them an email to run the toolkit, plus a personalized contract from PandaDoc.com, too. To do that, you need:

• Get an account with PandaDoc.com, and set up a sales contract
• Get an account with Zapier.com, and set it up to talk to PandaDoc (surprisingly easy, just involves authenticating on the two services)
• Set up a zap that gets triggered when a new invitee is created by Calendly

Prospects and existing customers can both use Calendly to book time with me, so I have Zapier set up to filter this zap only for people who book a sales call:

That way, the contracts and data collection instructions only go out to people booking free sales calls with me – not clients who’ve already signed a contract, and are just booking more time with me.

If you want to see the whole process in action, feel free to book a sales call with me (if I have that form enabled at the moment – I often don’t when I’m booked solid), and then cancel it a few minutes later. (The calendar invite has a cancelation link.) I won’t pester you with emails or anything – you’re not subscribing to a list when you book a sales call.

Note, though, that when you book a call, you’re going to see the download link for MY collection app. Mine is the same as yours, but mine has something a little tricky: it uploads your data directly to me, no email required. I’m only telling you that so you don’t go downloading mine and then handing that to your clients. You don’t really wanna send me your clients’ data, nor do I want it.