SDR/BDR Automation

End-to-end automated sales development: discover prospects, enrich and score them, run multi-channel outreach (cold email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp), and book meetings -- all orchestrated via n8n workflows.

When to Use

• "Automate my SDR process" or "build a prospecting pipeline"
• "Find and reach out to prospects automatically"
• "Multi-channel outreach automation"
• "I need an automated BDR"
• Setting up cold outreach at scale for any brand

Pipeline Overview

Discovery → Enrichment → Scoring → Outreach → Follow-up → Meeting Booking

Step 1: Prospect Discovery

Sources

Source	Tool	Best For
LinkedIn search	Apify curious_coder/linkedin-search-scraper	Job title + industry targeting
Google Maps	Apify compass/crawler-google-places	Local businesses by category
Industry directories	Apify web-scraper	Niche B2B lists
Google search	Apify apify/google-search-scraper	"CEO" + "logistics" + "company"
Existing CRM (stale leads)	Attio API filter	Re-engage cold leads

Discovery Queries by Vertical

const queries = {
  logistics: '"logistics company" OR "freight forwarder" OR "supply chain" CEO OR founder site:linkedin.com/in/',
  manufacturing: '"manufacturing" OR "factory" OR "production" CEO OR "operations manager" site:linkedin.com/in/',
  professional_services: '"consulting firm" OR "accounting firm" OR "law firm" managing partner site:linkedin.com/in/',
  import_export: '"import export" OR "international trade" OR "customs broker" CEO OR owner site:linkedin.com/in/'
};

Step 2: Enrichment Pipeline

Raw prospect data
  → Apify Google Search (company + person name)
  → Perplexity Sonar (deep company research via OpenRouter)
  → Apify Company Enrichment (structured data)
  → Gemini Flash synthesis (combine all sources into profile)

Enriched Profile Output

{
  "person": {
    "name": "John Smith",
    "role": "CEO",
    "email": "john@acmecorp.com",
    "phone": "+1-555-123-4567",
    "linkedin": "linkedin.com/in/johnsmith"
  },
  "company": {
    "name": "Acme Corp",
    "domain": "acmecorp.com",
    "industry": "Logistics",
    "size": "50-200",
    "location": "New York, US",
    "recent_news": "Expanded to 3 new markets in Q4 2025"
  },
  "personalization": {
    "pain_points": ["manual dispatch", "driver scheduling"],
    "trigger_event": "Recent expansion to new markets",
    "talking_point": "How AI can scale operations without proportional headcount growth"
  }
}

Step 3: ICP Scoring and Filtering

Use the lead-scoring-engine skill. Filter thresholds:

Score	Action
60+ (Hot)	Priority outreach, all channels
40-59 (Warm)	Standard sequence, email + LinkedIn
20-39 (Cold)	Email-only nurture, low priority
<20	Skip, do not outreach

Step 4: Multi-Channel Outreach

Channel Priority and Sequencing

Day 1: Cold email (Smartlead) — personalized first line + value prop
Day 3: LinkedIn connection request (if no email open)
Day 4: Email follow-up #1 (if opened but no reply)
Day 6: LinkedIn DM (if connected)
Day 8: Email follow-up #2 (breakup angle)
Day 10: WhatsApp (if phone available and Israel-based)
Day 14: Final breakup email

Channel Selection Logic

// n8n Code Node: Select next channel
function selectChannel(lead) {
  const { email_sent, email_opened, linkedin_connected,
          has_phone, geo, days_since_last } = lead;

  if (!email_sent) return 'cold_email';
  if (email_opened && !lead.replied && days_since_last >= 3) return 'email_followup';
  if (!linkedin_connected && days_since_last >= 2) return 'linkedin_connect';
  if (linkedin_connected && days_since_last >= 3) return 'linkedin_dm';
  if (has_phone && geo === 'IL' && days_since_last >= 5) return 'whatsapp';
  if (days_since_last >= 7) return 'breakup_email';
  return 'wait';
}

AI Personalization (First Lines)

Prompt to Gemini Flash (via OpenRouter):

You are a sales copywriter. Write a personalized first line for a cold email.

Context:
- Prospect: {{name}}, {{role}} at {{company}}
- Industry: {{industry}}
- Recent trigger: {{trigger_event}}
- Pain points: {{pain_points}}

Rules:
- Max 20 words
- Reference something specific about them or their company
- No generic compliments
- Sound human, not salesy

Output just the first line, nothing else.

Smartlead Integration

# Add lead to Smartlead campaign via API
curl -X POST "https://server.smartlead.ai/api/v1/campaigns/{{campaign_id}}/leads" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer {{SMARTLEAD_API_KEY}}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "lead_list": [{
      "email": "{{email}}",
      "first_name": "{{first_name}}",
      "last_name": "{{last_name}}",
      "company_name": "{{company}}",
      "custom_fields": {
        "personalized_line": "{{ai_first_line}}",
        "pain_point": "{{pain_point}}",
        "brand": "{{business_brand}}"
      }
    }]
  }'

Step 5: Meeting Booking

Final Touch CTA

{{firstName}}, I've shared a few ideas on how AI can help {{companyName}}
with {{painPoint}}.

If you'd like to see what this looks like for your specific workflow,
here's a quick 15-min slot: {{calendly_link}}

No prep needed — I'll walk through a relevant example.

Calendly/Cal.com Links by Brand

Brand	Calendar Link
guydvorkin.com	https://cal.com/guydvorkin/15min
exportarena.com	https://cal.com/exportarena/discovery
afarsemon.com	https://cal.com/afarsemon/15min

n8n Master Workflow

Schedule Trigger (every 4 hours, Sun-Thu for Israel, Mon-Fri for US/EU)
  → Fetch outreach queue from Attio (filter: needs_outreach=true, limit 20)
  → Loop each lead:
    → Determine next channel (Code Node)
    → Switch node by channel:
      → cold_email: Generate personalized email → Smartlead API
      → linkedin_connect: Queue connection request
      → linkedin_dm: Generate DM → queue
      → whatsapp: Generate message → WhatsApp API
      → email_followup: Generate follow-up → Smartlead API
      → breakup_email: Generate breakup → Smartlead API
    → Update Attio: last_outreach_date, sequence_step, channel_used
  → Summary to Telegram: "Processed 18 leads: 5 emails, 4 LinkedIn, 2 WhatsApp"

Metrics to Track

Metric	Target	Measurement
Prospects discovered/week	100+	Apify run count
Outreach sent/day	20-30	Smartlead + LinkedIn + WhatsApp
Email open rate	>50%	Smartlead analytics
Reply rate	>5%	Smartlead + manual tracking
Meetings booked/week	3-5	Calendly/Cal.com webhook
Discovery-to-meeting rate	>3%	End-to-end conversion

Quick Reference

Task	Method
Discover prospects	Apify actors (LinkedIn, Google, Maps)
Enrich leads	Enrichment sub-workflow (Apify + Perplexity + Gemini)
Score leads	Lead Scoring Engine skill
Send cold email	Smartlead API
LinkedIn outreach	LinkedIn Outreach skill
WhatsApp message	WhatsApp Business API or manual queue
Track sequences	Attio: sequence_step, last_outreach_date
Book meetings	Calendly/Cal.com links in final touches

Error Handling

• Smartlead API error: retry once, then queue for next batch
• LinkedIn rate limit: pause LinkedIn channel for 24h, continue other channels
• Invalid email bounce: remove from sequence, update Attio status
• Phone number invalid: skip WhatsApp, continue email/LinkedIn
• Enrichment failure: proceed with available data, lower confidence score
• Duplicate across brands: check Attio before outreach, skip if already in sequence