7d • 😎 Share Your Builds
Just shipped my first production automation — CRM Sync with deduplication & error handling. Feedback welcome.
Hey everyone 👋
First real post here. I've been learning from a lot of you silently, and I just finished my first production-grade automation. Wanted to share the build and get your feedback.
The Problem
Small businesses capture leads via forms, then **manually copy the data into their CRM**. This means wasted hours, duplicate contacts, and a CRM nobody trusts.
What I Built
An n8n workflow that:
1. Receives form submissions via webhook
2. Normalizes the data
3. Searches CRM for existing contact by email
4. Updates if exists / Creates if not (deduplication)
5. Creates a deal associated with the contact
6. Sends a Slack notification to the sales team
7. Logs everything in a Google Sheet (audit trail)
8. Error Trigger → Slack alert + fallback sheet if anything fails
The Workflow
[Webhook: POST /crm-sync]
↓
[Set: Normalize fields]
↓
[HTTP Request: GET /contacts/search by email]
↓
[IF: contact exists?]
├── YES → [HTTP Request: PATCH /contacts/{id}]
└── NO → [HTTP Request: POST /contacts]
↓
[HTTP Request: POST /deals]
↓
[Slack: Notify sales team]
↓
[Google Sheets: Append audit log]
[Error Trigger] → [Slack: Alert] → [Google Sheets: Fallback save]
Tech Stack
- n8n (self-hosted on Railway)
- HubSpot CRM (REST API v3)
- Slack (incoming webhook)
- Google Sheets (audit log + fallback)
What I Learned
1. API docs are everything — reading HubSpot's docs took longer than building the workflow.
2. Error handling is not optional — broke the API key on purpose to test. Silent failures are unacceptable for a paying client.
3. Test with bad data — missing fields, duplicates, special characters. Each edge case found a bug.
4. Audit logs build trust — the Google Sheet isn't just for debugging. It's what makes the client feel in control.
What's Next
- Two-way sync (CRM → Google Sheets back)
- AI lead scoring (form data → OpenAI → route by score)
- WhatsApp Business API notifications
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Any feedback, criticism, or "you should've done X instead" is welcome — that's how I'll get better. 🙏
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Just shipped my first production automation — CRM Sync with deduplication & error handling. Feedback welcome.
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