RecipeAgents / Recipes / Sales
Sales recipeTag why deals were lost
Your CRM's “lost reason” field is a mess of free text. This sorts each one into a short fixed list so you can count them.
| Input | CRM deal marked lost, with notes |
| Tools | Pipedrive or HubSpot, Zapier, an AI step |
| Time | Setup about 20 minutes. The value is in the monthly count, not in time saved. |
Download it
- n8n workflow (.json)Import in n8n: Workflows → Import from file. Then connect your credentials.
- Zapier blueprint (.md)Step-by-step rebuild guide. Zapier has no public import format, so this isn't one-click.
- Open the Zap editorCreate a new Zap and follow the blueprint.
The n8n file has three nodes (trigger, AI step, output) plus a read-me note. We check that its JSON structure is valid, but we haven't run every file in a live n8n instance, so test it with sample data before you switch it on.
Steps
- Trigger: deal stage changes to Lost.
- AI step classifies the notes.
- Write the category into a custom dropdown field.
- Monthly: export and count.
The prompt
Classify why this deal was lost into exactly one of: PRICE, TIMING, COMPETITOR, NO_DECISION, FIT, UNKNOWN. Return JSON {category, quote} where quote is the phrase from the notes that supports it. Notes: {{notes}}Sample run
Example input (written for illustration)
'They liked it but went with the cheaper option from X, maybe revisit next year'
Example output (shows the format, not a real log)
{"category":"COMPETITOR","quote":"went with the cheaper option from X"}SPONSOR SLOT · AVAILABLEFeature your product here
Where it breaks
- Two reasons at once. “Cheaper competitor” could be PRICE or COMPETITOR. Write down your rule once and add it to the prompt.
- Anything customer-facing or money-related. Keep a human approval step until you've watched a few dozen runs and trust it.
Tool names and pricing change often, so check each tool's current docs before you build. Times on this page are estimates, not measurements.