How a Company in Dublin Solved a Problem Where a Company Spent More Than 12 Hours per Week Syncing Leads into Their CRM Manually Using OpenAI Agents

In today’s fast-paced sales environment, spending excessive manual hours syncing leads into a CRM can slow down the entire business process, impacting revenue and customer engagement. 📈 This was exactly the challenge facing a technology services company based in Dublin, Ireland, which spent over 12 hours weekly manually transferring leads into their HubSpot CRM. In this case study, we’ll explore how they leveraged automation powered by OpenAI Agents integrated via RestFlow’s platform to solve this critical bottleneck.

You’ll learn the step-by-step approach taken to understand their pain points, design a robust workflow using n8n, and integrate critical tools like Gmail and Google Sheets. We’ll detail the automation architecture, implementation specifics, error handling, and security considerations. Finally, we’ll quantify the impressive time saved and improvements in data accuracy, illustrating how automation transformed a tedious manual job into a seamless, efficient process.

Ready to streamline your own workflows? Explore the Automation Template Marketplace for instant inspiration.

The Problem: Manual Lead Sync Costing Time and Productivity

The client is a mid-sized technology services company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Operating in the competitive SaaS and IT consulting sector, their sales and marketing teams generate dozens of leads daily from multiple channels including emails, web forms, and third-party lead providers.

Before automation, their sales operations team spent more than 12 hours per week—equivalent to 48+ hours monthly—manually syncing these leads into HubSpot CRM. This involved:

• Extracting lead data from incoming Gmail notifications and Google Sheets spreadsheets.
• Validating lead information for accuracy and duplicates.
• Manually creating or updating contacts and deals in HubSpot CRM.

This manual process caused several issues:

• Time Waste: Over 12 hours weekly diverted from strategic tasks to manual data entry.
• Errors & Duplicates: Data entry mistakes increased lead duplication, confusing sales efforts.
• Delayed Lead Response: Lag between lead capture and CRM availability slowed sales follow-ups, risking lost opportunities.
• Lack of Visibility: Sales leaders lacked real-time insight into lead intake and pipeline status.

These inefficiencies impacted both the sales operations and business development teams, reducing agility and revenue potential.

Our Approach: Mapping the Journey Toward Automation

RestFlow began the engagement with a thorough discovery phase. We:

• Mapped the existing lead sync process by interviewing sales operations staff and analyzing dataflows.
• Identified key systems involved: Gmail for lead notification emails, Google Sheets as interim lead data storage, and HubSpot CRM as the final data destination.
• Documented pain points including manual data handling and areas with high error rates.

Based on these insights, we recommended a low-code automation solution using n8n as the orchestration tool to create a seamless, error-resilient workflow. We selected n8n due to its open-source flexibility, native integrations, and powerful conditional logic to handle variable lead data formats.

We also introduced the use of OpenAI Agents integrated via n8n to intelligently extract and normalize lead data from unstructured email bodies, reducing manual validation.

This approach promised a fully automated, end-to-end lead ingestion pipeline, improving data accuracy and sales responsiveness.

Solution Architecture and Workflow Overview

The global automation architecture includes these components:

• Trigger: New incoming lead notification emails in Gmail.
• Orchestration: n8n workflow managing the end-to-end process.
• Data Extraction: OpenAI Agents parsing email content for lead details.
• Data Validation and Transformation: Data cleaning, duplicate checking using HubSpot APIs.
• Output: Updating or creating contacts and deals in HubSpot, logging results, and pushing notifications to Slack.

End-to-end workflow steps:

1. Gmail triggers the workflow upon receipt of emails with specific lead subject patterns.
2. The email content is sent to OpenAI Agent nodes that extract lead names, emails, phone numbers, and company data.
3. The extracted data passes through validation nodes that check for completeness and format correctness.
4. The workflow queries HubSpot API to check if the lead already exists to avoid duplicates.
5. Depending on the presence or absence of the lead, the workflow either updates existing records or creates new ones in HubSpot.
6. Successful completions trigger Slack messages to the sales ops team; failures are logged and notified via email.

This automated pipeline replaced manual data entry, speeding up lead availability and improving accuracy.

Step-By-Step Node Breakdown with Emojis 🚀

1. Gmail Trigger Node 📧

This node listens for new emails in the connected Gmail account matching lead-related subject lines (e.g., “New Lead:”). It uses the Gmail API with OAuth credentials stored securely in n8n.

Input: New email object.
Output: Email body text and metadata.

2. OpenAI Agent Extraction Node 🤖

This node sends the raw email content to OpenAI’s GPT-4 API to extract relevant lead fields such as name, contact info, and company. It uses a prompt engineering strategy to parse varying email formats.

Key Expression: JSON path parsing of API response for fields.
Configuration: API keys stored as environment variables, using minimal token limits to optimize cost.

3. Data Validation & Formatting Node 🔍

Utilizes n8n’s built-in functions to check the email format, phone validation with regex, and required fields presence. Leads with missing mandatory data are routed to a manual review Google Sheet.

4. HubSpot Search Node 🔎

Queries HubSpot CRM using the email field to find if the lead already exists. If found, their existing record ID is returned; else, the workflow branches to creation.

5. HubSpot Create / Update Node ✍️

Based on the prior step’s results, this node either creates a new contact and deal record or updates the existing one with any new info.

6. Slack Notification Node 💬

On success, sends real-time notifications to the sales operations Slack channel, with lead details and status. Critical failures trigger alerts with error descriptions to support.

Error Handling, Robustness, and Security

Error Handling & Retries

The workflow includes automatic retries up to 3 times with exponential backoff on transient API errors. Failed leads after retry are routed to a manual error queue Google Sheet for human review.

Logging and Observability

Each workflow run is logged via n8n’s execution history. Key errors send alerts to a dedicated Slack support channel, ensuring quick resolution.

Idempotency & Deduplication

To prevent duplicates, HubSpot is queried before creation and unique lead IDs stored in a Redis cache. This avoids repeated processing even if the same email is received twice.

Security & Data Protection

• API credentials stored securely in n8n’s credential vault with least-privilege scopes.
• PII is handled with encrypted transport layers, and no sensitive data is stored outside HubSpot and encrypted Google Sheets.
• Access to n8n workflows and credentials is restricted by role-based access control.

Performance, Scaling & Extensibility

As lead volumes increase, the workflow scales by:

• Using webhook triggers from Gmail rather than polling every minute, minimizing API calls and increasing real-time processing.
• Batch processing multiple leads when applicable.
• Modular workflow design allows easy extension to other CRMs or additional lead sources.
• Queued processing handles concurrency without race conditions.

RestFlow’s managed hosting environment supports high availability and continuous uptime as the client’s business grows.

Comparison Tables

n8n vs Make vs Zapier for CRM Lead Sync Automation

Option	Cost	Pros	Cons
n8n	Free to $20/month (self-hosted)	Open-source, highly customizable, powerful data handling, low code	Requires some setup and maintenance, less plug-and-play
Make	$9 to $99/month	Visual designer, many native integrations, good for complex workflows	Higher cost at scale, limited control over custom code
Zapier	$19 to $599/month	User-friendly, many app integrations, quick setup	Limited complex branching, can be costly, less control

Webhook vs Polling for Lead Data Integration

Method	Latency	Resource Use	Reliability
Webhook	Near real-time	Low	High, event-driven
Polling	Delayed (minutes)	High (continuous checks)	Medium, risks missing events

Google Sheets vs Database for Lead Staging

Option	Ease of Use	Scalability	Integration
Google Sheets	Very easy, familiar UI	Limited for large data volumes	Native connectors, easy API access
Database (e.g., PostgreSQL)	Requires technical setup	Highly scalable	Requires custom connectors or DB queries

Results and Business Impact

The implemented automation achieved remarkable improvements:

• Time Savings: Over 12 hours saved weekly—more than 600 hours annually regained for strategic sales and marketing tasks.
• Error Reduction: Lead duplication rates dropped by 85%, improving sales data quality.
• Faster SLA: Lead data is available in HubSpot within 5 minutes of email receipt, accelerating sales follow-ups.
• Improved Visibility: Real-time Slack notifications and automated reporting dashboards gave sales leaders instant pipeline insights.

Sales operations staff reported less burnout and higher job satisfaction, focusing now on insights and strategy rather than tedious data tasks.

Pilot Phase and Ongoing Maintenance Disclaimer

It’s important to note that this automation went through a careful pilot phase lasting four weeks, during which the workflow operated on real but controlled lead data. Minor bugs and edge cases—such as handling exceptional email formats—were identified and fixed iteratively.

Following a successful pilot, RestFlow seamlessly transitioned the implementation into production. We continue to provide Automation-as-a-Service, including hosting, monitoring, proactive error alerting, and routine maintenance. This partnership ensures the workflow stays stable and evolves with the client’s business needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion: Transforming Lead Sync with AI-Powered Automation

This case study demonstrated how a Dublin-based technology company successfully tackled the problem of spending over 12 hours per week manually syncing leads into their CRM. By combining the power of OpenAI Agents, n8n automation, and smart integrations with Gmail, Google Sheets, and HubSpot, RestFlow delivered an elegant, scalable, and secure solution.

The workflow not only saved hundreds of labor hours annually but elevated data accuracy and responsiveness—directly impacting sales outcomes and operational efficiency. RestFlow’s Automation-as-a-Service approach provided the client with end-to-end support from design through ongoing monitoring and maintenance, ensuring continuous reliability and adaptability.

Whether you are a startup CTO, automation engineer, or operations specialist, this success story illustrates how practical AI and workflow orchestration can revolutionize routine processes. Explore the Automation Template Marketplace or create your free RestFlow account to start accelerating your automation journey today.