Salespeople waste a lot of time researching new leads just finding out what the company does, who the contact is, what their role is, and how best to approach the first call. But what if all of that background research could be done automatically? In my latest YouTube video, I show how I connected SuiteCRM to AI using n8n, an open-source automation tool, to automatically generate lead summaries and positioning advice in real time.
It’s like giving your sales team a personal research assistant for free!
Why This Matters
When a new lead enters your CRM, you typically have:
- A name
- A phone number
- Maybe an email and company name
But before making that first call, your sales team has to:
- Look up the company
- Read up on what they do
- Understand the contact’s role
- Check for relevant news or insights
- Figure out how to position your product or service
That’s a lot of time lost and can be inconsistent, depending on who’s doing the research. My AI workflow solves that problem.
The Workflow: SuiteCRM + n8n + AI
Here’s a high-level breakdown of the automation I set up:
- Trigger: A checkbox field called Generate AI Summary is checked in a SuiteCRM Lead record.
- Webhook: SuiteCRM sends the lead data to n8n via a webhook.
- Data Enrichment: n8n uses:
- Google Search API to look up company and contact info
- OpenAI (ChatGPT) to summarize findings and generate positioning advice
- AI Prompt: The AI agent is instructed to return:
- A summary of the contact and their company
- Key company news
- Suggested positioning and messaging for the first call
- CRM Update: The AI-generated summary is written back into a custom field in SuiteCRM.
All this happens in the background — automatically — within a few seconds.
What It Looks Like in Practice
Once the automation is triggered, you’ll see the enriched AI summary show up right in your lead record. For example:
AI Summary
Contact: Paul Stevens, iGo Sales and Marketing
Company Overview: Full-service digital marketing and CRM consultancy
Recent News: Active in AI automation for CRM systems
Suggested Positioning: Focus on AI integrations, custom development, and automation efficiencies
The prompt to the AI can be customized depending on your business. Want it to recommend the most relevant product or check for buying signals? That’s totally possible.
Why Use n8n?
n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool that gives you drag-and-drop logic without the need to code. It connects seamlessly to SuiteCRM via webhooks and integrates with hundreds of APIs — including OpenAI, Google Search, and more.
Best of all?
You can host it for free on AWS (for up to 1 year)
It’s fully customizable
It scales with your CRM needs
Watch the Full Video
Curious to see it in action? I walk through the entire process — including the live demo — in my latest video:
Need Help Getting Started?
If you’re running SuiteCRM and want to integrate AI to boost your sales team’s efficiency, I can help. Whether it’s lead enrichment, workflow automation, or a custom AI use case, I’ve got the experience to make it happen.