Automate stale deal follow-ups in Salesforce with GPT-5.1, email, Slack & tasks

How it works

• Runs every morning at 8:00 using the Schedule Trigger.
• Sets a stale_days value and queries Salesforce for Opportunities where Stage_Unchanged_Days__c equals that value and the stage is not Closed Won / Closed Lost.
• For each “stale” Opportunity, loads full deal details and sends them to an OpenAI model.
• The model uses the query_soql tool to pull recent Notes, the primary Contact, and the Opportunity Owner, then returns a single JSON object with:
  • a personalized follow-up email for the client,
  • a short SMS template,
  • a concise Slack summary for the sales team,
  • and a ready-to-use Task payload for Salesforce.
• n8n parses that JSON, sends the email via SMTP, posts the Slack message to your chosen channel, and creates a Salesforce Task assigned to the Opportunity Owner so every stalled deal has a clear next step.

Setup steps

Estimated setup time: ~30–45 minutes if your Salesforce, OpenAI, SMTP and Slack credentials are ready.

1. Create Stage_Unchanged_Days__c on Opportunity (Salesforce)

   • Field Type: Formula (Number, 0 decimal places)
   • Formula:

     IF(
       ISBLANK(LastStageChangeDate),
       TODAY() - DATEVALUE(CreatedDate),
       TODAY() - DATEVALUE(LastStageChangeDate)
     )
     

   • This field tracks how many days the Opportunity has been in the current stage.

2. Connect credentials in n8n

   • Salesforce OAuth2 for the Salesforce nodes and the query_soql HTTP Tool.
   • OpenAI (or compatible) credential for the “Message a model” node.
   • SMTP credential for the customer email node.
   • Slack credential for the internal notification node.

3. Configure your follow-up rules

   • In Edit Fields (Set), set stale_days to the threshold that defines a stalled deal (e.g. 7, 14, 30).
   • In Perform a query, optionally refine the SOQL (record types, owners, minimum amount, etc.) to match your pipeline.
   • Update the Send Email SMTP Customer node with your real “from” address and tweak the wording if needed.
   • Point Send Message To Internal Team (Slack) to the right channel or user.

4. Test safely

   • Turn off the Schedule Trigger and run the workflow manually with a few test Opportunities.
   • Inspect the AI output in Message a model and Parse JSON to confirm the structure (email, sms, slack, task.api_body).
   • Check that the email and Slack messages look good and that Salesforce Tasks are created, assigned to the right Owner, and linked to the correct Opportunity.

5. Go live

   • Re-enable the Schedule Trigger.
   • Monitor the first few days to confirm that follow-ups, Slack alerts, and Tasks all behave as expected, then let the automation quietly keep your pipeline clean and moving.