Most businesses lose qualified leads not because they lack interest, they lose them because no one followed up fast enough. Research shows 78% of customers buy from the first company to respond. With this n8n + Claude AI setup, your first follow-up happens in under 90 seconds, 24 hours a day.

What You’ll Build

By the end of this guide, you’ll have a working lead qualification bot that:

• Receives new leads from any form (Gravity Forms, Typeform, Webflow, etc.)
• Uses Claude AI to score the lead and assess budget, timeline, and fit
• Sends a personalized follow-up email within 60–90 seconds of form submission
• Logs the scored lead to your CRM (Zoho, HubSpot, or Airtable)
• Notifies your sales rep via Slack or email only for high-score leads

What You Need

• n8n, self-hosted or n8n.cloud (free tier works for this)
• Anthropic API key, from console.anthropic.com (~$0.01 per qualification)
• A CRM, Zoho, HubSpot, or Airtable (all have n8n nodes)
• An email account, Gmail or SMTP for follow-up

Step 1: Create the n8n Webhook Trigger

In n8n, create a new workflow. Add a Webhook node as the trigger. Set Method to POST, and copy the webhook URL. This is the URL you’ll put in your web form’s submission endpoint.

Test it by submitting a dummy form entry, you should see the payload appear in n8n’s execution log.

Step 2: Format the Lead Data

Add an Edit Fields node (formerly Set node) to extract the relevant fields from your form payload:

name:     {{ $json.body.name }}
email:    {{ $json.body.email }}
company:  {{ $json.body.company }}
message:  {{ $json.body.message }}
budget:   {{ $json.body.budget }}

Step 3: The Claude AI Qualification Call

Add an HTTP Request node pointed at https://api.anthropic.com/v1/messages. Use POST method with these headers:

x-api-key: YOUR_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
anthropic-version: 2023-06-01
Content-Type: application/json

Body (JSON):

{
  "model": "claude-haiku-4-5",
  "max_tokens": 400,
  "messages": [{
    "role": "user",
    "content": "You are a lead qualification specialist. Analyze this lead and respond with JSON only.\n\nLead details:\n- Name: {{ $json.name }}\n- Company: {{ $json.company }}\n- Message: {{ $json.message }}\n- Budget: {{ $json.budget }}\n\nRespond with:\n{\n  \"score\": 1-10,\n  \"intent\": \"high|medium|low\",\n  \"summary\": \"2 sentence assessment\",\n  \"recommended_action\": \"specific next step\"\n}"
  }]
}

Step 4: Parse the Claude Response

Add a Code node to extract the JSON from Claude’s response:

const response = $input.first().json;
const content = response.content[0].text;
const parsed = JSON.parse(content);
return { json: parsed };

Step 5: Route Based on Score

Add an IF node: if score >= 7, go to the high-value branch. If score < 7, go to the nurture branch.

High-value branch: Send personalized email + Slack notification to sales rep + add to CRM as Hot Lead.

Nurture branch: Add to email drip sequence, log to CRM as Prospect.

Step 6: The Personalized Follow-Up Email

Your email should reference what the lead actually wrote, not a generic template. Use the summary and recommended_action from Claude's response to personalize each email automatically:

Subject: Quick thought on what you shared, {{ $json.name }}

Hi {{ $json.name }},

Thanks for reaching out. Based on what you shared about
{{ $json.company }}, here's what we're thinking...

{{ $json.summary }}

{{ $json.recommended_action }}

Want to jump on a quick 20-minute call this week?

[Book a Time →]

Results From Real Deployments

We've deployed this exact setup for law firms, real estate agencies, SaaS companies, and e-commerce brands. The numbers are consistent:

Common Issues & Fixes

• Claude returns invalid JSON: Add explicit instruction in the prompt: 'Return ONLY the JSON object, no other text'
• Webhook not receiving data: Check your form is sending to the correct URL and using POST method
• Email looks like spam: Ensure your email domain has SPF/DKIM records set up