Proposal Follow-Up Automator

AI-powered daily proposal follow-up — stall classification, urgency scoring, and personalized email drafts for stuck deals across 4 reason categories.

AI-powered daily proposal follow-up automation — classifies stall reasons across 4 categories (decision delay, budget review, champion ghosting, competitor evaluation), assigns urgency tiers, and generates personalized follow-up email drafts for deals stuck in proposal stage. 28-node n8n workflow with 5 AI agents, Blueprint Quality Standard (BQS) 12/12 certified. We built this after tracking 90 proposals and finding that 22 had zero follow-up after initial send. The automator schedules and drafts follow-ups based on proposal status and engagement signals.

Last updated March 19, 2026

Sales teams send and receive thousands of emails per week, but fewer than 10% receive systematic follow-up analysis. Response time, sentiment shifts, and intent signals buried in email threads go undetected. Automated communication intelligence catches patterns that human review at scale cannot.

triggerSchedule01FetcherPipedrive API02Classifier4 Categories03ScorerUrgency Tiers04WriterEmail Drafts05DispatcherGmail + SlackGmailFollow-Up DraftsSlackStall Alert

Five Agents. Daily Stall Classification. Personalized Follow-Up Drafts.

The Fetcher

Step 1The Fetcher

Code-only

Retrieves all active deals at the configured proposal stage from Pipedrive API — deal value, contact details, activity history, stage entry date, and last communication timestamp. Calculates days-since-last-activity for stall detection threshold comparison.

The Classifier

Step 2The Classifier

Tier 1 Reasoning

What does The Classifier actually decide? Classifies each stalled deal into one of 4 stall reason categories: decision_delay (stakeholder alignment stalled), budget_review (procurement or finance hold), champion_ghosting (primary contact unresponsive), or competitor_evaluation (active competitive comparison). Uses deal activity patterns, email response gaps, and stage duration signals.

The Scorer

Step 3The Scorer

Code-only

This step exists because raw data alone is not enough. Computes urgency tier for each stalled deal: CRITICAL (≥7 days stalled), WARNING (4-6 days), or MONITOR (3 days). Factors in deal value, stall reason category, and number of prior follow-up attempts. Enforces configurable follow-up limit to prevent over-contact.

The Writer

Step 4The Writer

Tier 3 Creative

The output here feeds everything downstream. Generates personalized follow-up email drafts tailored to each stall reason category. Decision delay gets stakeholder alignment hooks, budget review gets ROI reinforcement, champion ghosting gets multi-thread outreach, competitor evaluation gets differentiation talking points. Each draft includes the deal context and specific next-step recommendations.

The Dispatcher

Step 5The Dispatcher

Code-only

Without this step, upstream analysis sits idle. Creates Gmail draft emails for each stalled deal (draft mode by default, configurable to auto-send) and posts a daily Slack digest with stall counts by category, urgency distribution, and top 5 deals requiring immediate attention.The scorer ignored an optional hint field. Adding 4 lines of explicit scoring rules — what the field represents, how it affects threshold — fixed scores immediately.

That's the full pipeline. Here's what it intentionally does NOT do — and why those boundaries exist.

What It Does NOT Do

×

Does not modify deal stages or values — read-only analysis with email drafts as output

×

Does not replace human judgment on when to send — draft mode lets reps review before sending

×

Does not predict deal outcomes — it classifies current stall reasons and generates follow-up content

×

Does not monitor real-time deal changes — daily batch analysis at configured schedule

×

Does not handle initial outreach — designed for deals already at proposal stage that have stalled

With those boundaries clear, here's everything that ships when you purchase.

The Complete Customer Success Bundle

7 files.

CHANGELOG.mdVersion history
README.mdSetup and configuration guide
docs/TDD.mdTechnical Design Document
proposal_follow_up_automator_v1_0_0.jsonn8n workflow (main pipeline)
system_prompts/analyst_system_prompt.mdAnalyst system prompt
system_prompts/writer_system_prompt.mdWriter system prompt
workflow/pfa_scheduler_v1_0_0.jsonScheduler workflow

The technical specifications below are ITP-measured, not estimated.

Tested. Measured. Documented.

Daily proposal follow-up with 4-category stall classification, 3-tier urgency scoring, and personalized email drafts delivered via Gmail and Slack.

Tested on n8n v2.7.5, March 2026

Proposal Follow-Up Automator v1.0.0──────────────────────────────────────────Nodes:        28 main + 3 scheduler (31 total)Agents:       5 (Fetcher, Classifier, Scorer, Writer, Dispatcher)LLM Calls:    2 per deal (Classifier + Writer)Model:        Sonnet 4.6 (SINGLE-MODEL)Trigger:      Schedule (daily 8:00 UTC) + WebhookPattern:      BATCH (daily stall classification + follow-up)Tool A:       Pipedrive (API Token) — deals, contacts, activitiesTool B:       Gmail (OAuth2) — draft creationTool C:       Slack (httpHeaderAuth) — daily stall digestITP:          20/20 records, all milestones PASSBQS:          12/12 PASSCost:         $0.015 per deal

What You'll Need

Platform

n8n 2.7.5+

Est. Monthly API Cost

Daily cost ~$0.015/deal (~$10-15/month for 30+ deals/day)

Credentials Required

  • Anthropic API
  • Pipedrive (API Token)
  • Gmail (OAuth2)
  • Slack (Bot Token, httpHeaderAuth Bearer, chat:write)

Services

  • Pipedrive CRM with active pipeline
  • Anthropic API key
  • Gmail account
  • Slack workspace (Bot Token with chat:write)

Setup Track

Quick Start

~15 min

All credentials live, n8n running

Full Setup

1–2 hrs

Needs API config + tables

From Scratch

2–4 hrs

No n8n, no credentials

Proposal Follow-Up Automator v1.0.0

$199

one-time purchase

What you get:

  • ITP-tested n8n workflow (28 nodes + 3-node scheduler)
  • 4-category stall reason classification (decision_delay, budget_review, champion_ghosting, competitor_evaluation)
  • 3-tier urgency scoring (CRITICAL ≥7d, WARNING 4-6d, MONITOR 3d)
  • Personalized follow-up email drafts tailored to each stall reason
  • Configurable follow-up limit to prevent over-contact
  • Gmail draft creation (or auto-send) with deal context
  • Daily Slack digest with stall counts and top 5 urgent deals
  • Configurable: proposal stage name, stale threshold, follow-up limit, draft mode
  • Full technical documentation and system prompts

Frequently Asked Questions

How does it classify stall reasons?+

The Classifier analyzes deal activity patterns — email response gaps, stage duration relative to pipeline benchmarks, and activity sequence signals. Each pattern maps to one of 4 stall categories. Classification confidence is included in the output for transparency.

Can I customize the stall threshold?+

Yes. STALE_THRESHOLD_DAYS (default 3) controls when a deal is considered stalled. FOLLOW_UP_LIMIT (default 3) caps the number of automated follow-ups per deal.

Does it send emails automatically?+

By default, it creates Gmail drafts for human review. Set GMAIL_DRAFT_MODE to false to enable auto-send. The daily Slack digest always fires regardless of draft mode.

Is there a refund policy?+

All sales are final after download. Review the Blueprint Dependency Matrix and prerequisites before purchase. Questions?

Read the full guide →

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