How I turned a 5-figure N8N automation proposal into a 6-figure AI system (and discovered $1M+ in hidden revenue)

Hey folks! 👋

Just wanted to share a wild client story that perfectly shows the power of thinking bigger with AI...

THE ORIGINAL ASK: Client reached out for a "simple N8N automation" to sync their CRM data. Standard 5-figure automation project, nothing fancy.

THE OPPORTUNITY I SAW: During discovery, I realized they were manually hunting for upsell opportunities, wasting 80+ hours/month, and had customers dropping off after random sales pitches.

That's when it clicked: Why automate data sync when we could automate revenue growth?

WHAT I PROPOSED INSTEAD: An internal AI engine for their CS team that:

Predicts upsell opportunities in real-time
Scores customer "temperature" for readiness
Triggers automated playbooks at the perfect moment
Prevents churn by protecting vulnerable accounts

THE RESULTS:

Upgraded from 5-figure automation to 6-figure AI system
Discovered $1M+ in expansion revenue hiding in their CRM
47% of customers were qualified but never approached
Projected $1.47M+ impact in Year 1

THE TWIST: I actually built this system 3 different times using Claude, OpenAI, and Gemini to see which AI could handle the complexity. One scored 92/100, others failed hard.

The full breakdown (with scores, failures, and exact revenue calculations) is in my Twitter thread if you want to see how each AI performed.

KEY TAKEAWAY: Sometimes the biggest opportunity isn't automating what they asked for—it's automating what they didn't know they needed.

Anyone else had success upselling from basic automation to AI-powered business intelligence?

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