Poll Google Sheets leads, generate GPT-4o-mini summary, and draft Gmail outreach in n8n

Input: new or updated rows in Google Sheets; Process: OpenAI generates company summary and automation value prop, Gmail creates draft; Output: Gmail draft + status written back to Sheets

Who

Sales ops or marketers who want low-code automation to process leads and generate personalized email drafts at scale

You get

Automatically detect new Sheets rows every minute, AI-generates a two-sentence company summary and value proposition, creates a Gmail draft, and writes the summary and status back to Sheets

You need

n8n · gmail · google-sheets

Steps

1. Configure credentials and spreadsheet

   Add and verify credentials for Google Sheets, OpenAI, and Gmail in n8n. Select the target Google Sheets document and worksheet, ensuring the sheet includes FirstName, Company, Industry, Status, and AI Summary columns. Set the same document and worksheet in both the Google Sheets Trigger and the Update Google Sheet node.

2. Set up the Sheets trigger

   Configure the Google Sheets Trigger node (When Sheet Updated) with poll interval everyMinute. Provide the documentId and sheetName so the workflow starts when new or updated rows appear.

3. Generate lead insights with OpenAI

   Configure the OpenAI Lead Insights node with model gpt-4o-mini. Enter the following user message in the messages field, using the Company and Industry fields from the Sheets row as variables.

   Execution prompt · Source text。OpenAI Lead Insights node messages.values[0].content field

   Copy prompt

   =Analyze this lead company: {{ $json.Company }} in industry {{ $json.Industry }}. Write a short 2-sentence summary of what they do and suggest a value proposition for an automation solution.

4. Draft the Gmail message

   Configure the Draft Gmail Reply node with resource set to draft and emailType set to text. Use the recipient from the Sheets row (or specify separately), and set the subject and body using the templates below, where FirstName and Company come from Sheets and output comes from the previous OpenAI step.

   Execution prompt · Source text。Draft Gmail Reply node message field

   Copy prompt

   =Hi {{ $json.FirstName }},
   
   I noticed your work at {{ $json.Company }}.
   
   {{ $json.output }}
   
   Would you be open to a brief chat this week?
   
   Best regards,
   Adetunji

   Execution prompt · Source text。Draft Gmail Reply node subject field

   Copy prompt

   =Exploring Automation Opportunities for {{ $json.Company }}

5. Write status back to Sheets

   Configure the Update Sheet Status in Sheets node with operation set to update. Map columns: Status hard-coded to "Draft Created", AI Summary set to the previous OpenAI output variable {{ $json.output }}. Ensure documentId and sheetName match the trigger node so the correct original row is updated.

You are setting up an n8n workflow: pull new leads from Google Sheets, use GPT-4o-mini to generate a company summary and automation value proposition, create a Gmail draft, then write the AI summary and status back to Sheets. First confirm you have: an n8n instance, credentials for Google Sheets/OpenAI/Gmail, and a sheet with FirstName/Company/Industry/Status/AI Summary columns. Then configure the trigger, OpenAI node, Gmail draft node, and Sheets update node step by step. Adjust the OpenAI prompt and email template if you need different tone or scoring logic.