# The AI Lead Qualification Playbook | Free n8n Template > Score every inbound lead 1 to 10 with Claude and route it through HubSpot in under five minutes. A free n8n template, documented step by step. Canonical: https://elandz.com/playbooks/ai-lead-qualification/ --- [All Playbooks](https://elandz.com/playbooks/) AI Qualification Free n8n template 7 min read # AI Lead Qualification: Score and Route Every Inbound Lead in Minutes A production n8n workflow that researches each new lead, scores it 1 to 10 with Claude, and routes it through HubSpot to the right follow up. Free to import, yours to keep. 1 to 10 AI fit score on every lead < 5 min from form submit to routed lead ~2 h one time setup, then it runs itself By Elandz · Updated August 2026 · Built from a system running in production Trigger Webhook intake a lead submits your form Enrich Company research homepage plus web intel AI Decide Claude scores 1 to 10 score, reason, drafted reply Act Route by tier HubSpot, Slack, Gmail The System at a Glance ## What the Workflow Actually Does A lead fills out your form. The workflow catches the submission, reads the company behind the email address, researches it on the open web, and asks Claude for a fit score with a written reason. HubSpot gets the score, the tier, and the reasoning on the contact record, and the lead is routed before anyone opens their inbox. Trigger Webhook intake form fields arrive Enrich Company research homepage plus web intel AI Decide Claude scores 1 to 10 score, reason, drafted reply Act Route by tier HubSpot, Slack, Gmail This diagram mirrors the real n8n canvas below, stage by stage. n8n: Score inbound leads with Claude and route HubSpot lifecycle stages The actual workflow, as published on n8n.io. Every step in this playbook exists on this canvas. The Concept ## What is AI lead qualification? AI lead qualification is the use of a language model to research, score, and route inbound leads the moment they arrive, instead of leaving triage to whoever checks the inbox next. A typical system reads the form submission, gathers public information about the company, and returns a fit score from 1 to 10 with a written reason, usually within five minutes of the submit. The point is not replacing human judgment. It is making the first pass instant and consistent. Every lead gets researched the same way, scored against the same ideal customer profile, and lands in the CRM with the reasoning attached, so a person can override any call the model makes. The workflow documented on this page does exactly that with Claude, HubSpot, Slack, and Gmail. Step by Step ## How It Works 1 A lead hits the webhook Your form posts five fields to the workflow's lead-intake webhook: name, email, company, job title, and message. Before anything else runs, the workflow checks that HubSpot has the three custom properties it writes to, ai_lead_score, ai_lead_tier, and ai_score_reason, and creates them if they are missing. 2 The workflow does its homework It extracts the company domain from the email address, fetches the company homepage, and runs a web search for third party coverage of the company, deliberately excluding the company's own domain. The score gets built on outside evidence, not just the company's marketing copy. 3 Claude scores and explains Claude receives the lead profile and your ideal customer description, then returns a fit score from 1 to 10, a written reason, and a drafted reply email for the lead. Thresholds you control map the score to hot, warm, or cold. 4 HubSpot routes by tier The contact is upserted with score, tier, and reason, and the lifecycle stage is set by your thresholds. Hot leads get a HubSpot deal, a Slack alert to sales, and an immediate email. Warm and cold leads get tier matched replies. Nothing waits in a queue. POST /webhook/lead-intake payload { "name": "Jordan Lee", "email": "jordan@acmesaas.com", "company": "Acme SaaS", "jobTitle": "Head of Marketing", "message": "We need help routing inbound leads." } The exact payload the webhook expects. Point your form tool at the webhook URL and map these five fields. Requirements ## What You Need to Run It A HubSpot private app token with CRM scopes. The workflow makes sure its three scoring properties exist before it writes to them. An Anthropic API key for Claude. Research plus scoring runs cents per lead, not dollars. Slack and Gmail connections for alerts and replies. Both authenticate with standard OAuth inside n8n. One config node holds your ICP description, hot and warm thresholds, and the Slack channel. That is the whole configuration. The Template ## Get the Exact Workflow, Free The system documented above, as an importable n8n template. Runs on any n8n instance, including the free self hosted version. Nothing is locked, nothing is gated. [Get the Free Template](https://n8n.io/workflows/16011-score-inbound-leads-with-claude-and-route-hubspot-lifecycle-stages/) Hosted on n8n.io · import in one click The Honest Part ## Run It Yourself, or Have It Built Where DIY works If your stack matches the template, HubSpot, a form, Slack, and Gmail, you can import this and be live the same day. Paste four credentials, describe your ideal customer in a paragraph, set two thresholds, and send a test lead through. n8n's free self hosted tier runs it fine. No paid n8n plan, no proprietary connectors, and no involvement from us. Where DIY breaks The failure points are rarely on the canvas. They live at the edges: forms that send different field names, a CRM full of legacy properties, scoring criteria nobody ever wrote down, and no one watching when an API changes underneath you. That work lands on whoever imported the template. Builds run $5,000 to $15,000 fixed price, live in 2 to 4 weeks, scoped after the free audit: a 10 to 15 minute video showing where your leads leak. Five per month. [Request My Free Audit](https://elandz.com/free-lead-flow-audit/) Common Questions ## Before You Ask ? Can AI actually qualify leads accurately? Accuracy comes from the inputs, not the model. Scoring against a written ideal customer profile with outside research beats inbox triage for consistency, and every score ships with a written reason on the contact record, so a person can override any call in seconds. Treat the first two weeks as calibration: read the reasons, adjust the ICP text and thresholds, and the scores settle. ? How is this different from HubSpot's built in lead scoring? HubSpot's built in scoring adds and subtracts points from rules you define, mostly activity signals like opens, page visits, and form fills. This workflow judges fit. It researches the company, reads the message, and explains its score in plain language. The two work well together. Rules tell you who is active, this tells you who is worth your time. ? What does it cost to run? n8n's self hosted version is free, and Claude usage for research plus scoring runs cents per lead, not dollars. The real investment is roughly two hours of setup plus the thinking behind your ICP and thresholds. There is no subscription and nothing locked. The workflow is yours after import.