Free guide
Follow up leads without a CRM
Most UK micro-businesses do not need a £50/month CRM on day one. You need a list everyone trusts, timestamps you can audit, and emails that fire on schedule - n8n plus a Google Sheet gets you there.
What to put in the sheet
One row per enquiry. Keep columns boring so imports never break:
email,name,source(e.g. contact form, Google Ads)received_at- ISO date from the webhookstage-new,nudged,quoted,won,lostlast_touch- when the last automated email went out
Share the sheet with your n8n Google service account only. Avoid editing rows by hand while a workflow is running - use a “notes” column for humans instead.
n8n flow in plain English
- Webhook - same JSON shape as the webhook capture guide; respond 200 immediately.
- Append row - Google Sheets node adds the lead with
stage=new. - Email 1 - thank-you within minutes (see enquiry auto-reply).
- Wait - two days, then email 2; five days, then email 3 (the 3-email lead pattern).
- Update row - set
last_touchandstageafter each send so you never double-email.
Quote chases work the same way: when stage becomes quoted, branch to the day 2 / 5 / 10 sequence from the quote chase guide.
Why Sheets beats a spreadsheet on your desktop
- n8n Cloud can reach it 24/7 without your laptop being on.
- Your VA or partner sees the same live list - useful when you are on site.
- Export to CSV for year-end or Making Tax Digital records without a data export fee.
When you outgrow it, you are not locked in: the webhook payload is already normalised for a proper CRM later.
UK practicalities
Store only what you need for the job enquiry. Link your privacy policy on the form; mention follow-up email in the consent line. This is operational guidance, not legal advice - see Privacy for how Devvizion handles site data.
Send from a domain you control (you@yourbusiness.co.uk), not a no-reply@ that UK buyers distrust. Warm up volume slowly if you are moving off manual Gmail sends.