Automate Stale Deal Follow-Ups in Salesforce with GPT-5.1, Email, Slack & Tasks

How it works Runs every morning at 8:00 using the Schedule Trigger.
Sets a stale_days value and queries Salesforce for Opportunities where Stage_Unchanged_Days__c equals that value and the stage is not Closed Won / Closed Lost.
For each “stale” Opportunity, loads full deal details and sends them to an OpenAI model.
The model uses the query_soql tool to pull recent Notes, the primary Contact, and the Opportunity Owner, then returns a single JSON object with:
a personalized follow-up email for the client,
a short SMS template,
a concise Slack summary for the sales team,
and a ready-to-use Task payload for Salesforce.
n8n parses that JSON, sends the email via SMTP, posts the Slack message to your chosen channel, and creates a Salesforce Task assigned to the Opportunity Owner so every stalled deal has a clear next step.

Setup steps Estimated setup time: ~30–45 minutes if your Salesforce, OpenAI, SMTP and Slack credentials are ready.

Create Stage_Unchanged_Days__c on Opportunity (Salesforce)
Field Type: Formula (Number, 0 decimal places)
Formula:
IF( ISBLANK(LastStageChangeDate), TODAY() - DATEVALUE(CreatedDate), TODAY() - DATEVALUE(LastStageChangeDate) ) This field tracks how many days the Opportunity has been in the current stage.

Connect credentials in n8n
Salesforce OAuth2 for the Salesforce nodes and the query_soql HTTP Tool.
OpenAI (or compatible) credential for the “Message a model” node.
SMTP credential for the customer email node.
Slack credential for the internal notification node.

Configure your follow-up rules
In Edit Fields (Set), set stale_days to the threshold that defines a stalled deal (e.g. 7, 14, 30).
In Perform a query, optionally refine the SOQL (record types, owners, minimum amount, etc.) to match your pipeline.
Update the Send Email SMTP Customer node with your real “from” address and tweak the wording if needed.
Point Send Message To Internal Team (Slack) to the right channel or user.

Test safely
Turn off the Schedule Trigger and run the workflow manually with a few test Opportunities.
Inspect the AI output in Message a model and Parse JSON to confirm the structure (email, sms, slack, task.api_body).
Check that the email and Slack messages look good and that Salesforce Tasks are created, assigned to the right Owner, and linked to the correct Opportunity.

Go live
Re-enable the Schedule Trigger.
Monitor the first few days to confirm that follow-ups, Slack alerts, and Tasks all behave as expected, then let the automation quietly keep your pipeline clean and moving.