How to use n8n + OpenAI to build an AI sales development representative system: 30 minutes of automated customer mining

Tutorial Objectives

In 30 minutes, build an automated AI sales development representative (SDR) system with n8n + OpenAI. The system automatically mines leads from public data sources, uses AI to generate personalized outreach emails, and writes the results into a CRM.

What will you build?

• Automated Lead Miner: Automatically get a list of leads from CSV/Public API
• AI Personalization Engine: Use OpenAI to generate customized outreach content for each lead
• Automated sending pipeline: Automatically send via email API and track opens/replies
• CRM Writeback Bridge: Automatically log interaction results to HubSpot/Salesforce

Preparation list

• n8n account (Cloud free version is available, it is recommended to use n8n Cloud to reduce setup time)
• OpenAI API Key (platform.openai.com registered to obtain)
• A CSV file or Google Sheet with lead information
• Gmail/SendGrid account is used to send emails (optional, you can also send manually)

Overall architecture

This tutorial will build a complete SDR automation pipeline, divided into 4 core modules.

Step 1: Build the lead import module

Start by creating a new workflow in n8n. Add a Google Sheets node (or Read CSV Files node) as the data source.

Configuration points:

• Data columns are recommended to include: name, company, title, linkedin_url, email, industry
• If there is no existing data, n8n's built-in HTTP Request node can obtain enterprise leads from Apollo API or Hunter.io
• Add a Filter node to filter invalid data (empty emails, incomplete records)

// Filter
{
  "conditions": {
    "email": { "exists": true },
    "name": { "exists": true }
  }
}

**** n8n Cloud 5 ， SDR 。， n8n 。

2 AI

。 OpenAI ， "Create Message" 。

（System Prompt）

（SDR）。 outreach 。
、（，）
-
-
- [AI 60% ]

，，。

OpenAI Messages ， n8n

: {{ $json.name }}
: {{ $json.title }}
: {{ $json.company }}
: {{ $json.industry }}

Switch API → ； → 。

3

Gmail （ SendGrid ）， AI 。

Gmail

• OAuth2 （ n8n Google ）
• {{ $json.email }}
• AI automation suggestions for {{ $json.company }}（）
• {{ $json.generated_comment }}（AI ）

**n8n **

• 24
• ， AI follow-up
• ， "" Slack

**** n8n Cloud ，。，n8n 。

4 CRM

HubSpot （ Salesforce ） CRM。

// HubSpot Update Contact
{
  "resource": "contact",
  "operation": "update",
  "contactId": "{{ $json.hubspot_id }}",
  "properties": {
    "hs_lead_status": "contacted",
    "last_contacted_date": "{{ $now.toISOString() }}",
    "outreach_message_snippet": "{{ $json.generated_comment.slice(0, 200) }}"
  }
}

Google Sheets ， outreach （、、），。

（FAQ）

Q1OpenAI API ？

OpenAI Settings Retry on Fail = 3 ，Timeout = 30 。， API Key gpt-4o-mini（）。

Q2n8n Cloud ？

。 5 2500 /。 SDR （ 100-200 ）。。

Q3？

SPF/DKIM （Gmail ）。，AI prompt "，" 。

SEO+GEOFAQ GEO ，

（）

， tools hover-cardn8n、OpenAI、ChatGPT、Claude、DeepSeek、HubSpot、Slack

Reference video/material

• n8n AI Agent
• OpenAI

Internal link guidance

• Someone has successfully practiced it: I used n8n + OpenAI to build AI content automation website: a complete review of monthly income $4,500
• Recommended tool: n8n