Route CRM Leads: Claude + Make

A regional solar installer covers three territories, each with its own rep. New contacts pour into the CRM from the website, and the question every time is the same: whose lead is this. The answer waits in a weekly meeting, by which point the fast-moving buyers have already called a competitor.

This build answers it in seconds. When a contact lands in the CRM, Claude reads the details, works out the territory or segment, and Make posts it to the right Slack channel with a one-line note on who they are and why they matter. The right rep sees the right lead while it is still warm.

We wire it in Make, part of our Sales and CRM set. We use HubSpot as the CRM here, but the trigger swaps cleanly for Pipedrive, Salesforce, or even a Google Sheet. The judgment Claude adds is the read: who is this, and where should it go.

What does this workflow actually do?

In one line: a new CRM contact becomes a routed Slack alert. Make watches your CRM. When a contact is created, Claude categorizes it and writes a one-line context note, and Make posts that to the Slack channel for the right team or territory. The lead reaches the right person without a meeting.

A few real cases, none of them the usual ones:

• The solar installer above, getting each lead to the right territory rep the moment it arrives.
• A B2B SaaS team routing new trials by company size to the right salesperson.
• A managed-IT firm routing inbound contacts by the industry they are in.
• A boutique recruiting agency sorting new contacts into client or candidate channels.

Capturing the contact is automatic; the CRM does it. Reading each one and deciding where it belongs is the judgment that stalls in a queue. That read is what Claude does instantly.

Why use Make if Claude can already read and write?

Reasonable question. Claude is good at reading a contact record and deciding which bucket it belongs in. It is not built to watch the CRM, post to Slack, and run nonstop. That is plumbing, and Make does plumbing.

Make handles the no-judgment steps: catching the new contact, posting to the channel, running on its own. Claude handles the one step that needs a read, the routing call. Make is the switchboard; Claude is the operator who knows where to connect the call. Keeping Claude to the read and letting Make do the routing is what makes it trustworthy.

What do you need before you start?

• A Make account. The free 1,000 operations a month covers a steady flow of contacts.
• A Claude API key from the console, not the chat app. See how to use Claude.
• A CRM with a new-contact trigger. We use HubSpot; Pipedrive, Salesforce, and others work the same way.
• A Slack workspace with the channels you route into, and permission for the connection to post.

Two Make words. A scenario is the whole CRM-to-Slack automation. A module is one box. Three boxes, one scenario.

How does the workflow work, step by step?

Three modules, left to right:

Module	App	What it does
1. Trigger	HubSpot (CRM)	Fires when a new contact is created
2. Brain	Claude	Categorizes the contact and writes a context line
3. Output	Slack	Posts the lead to the right channel

Step 1: Watch your CRM for new contacts

Create a scenario and add HubSpot CRM, Watch Contacts. Connect your CRM and choose to watch new contacts. This trigger hands the next step the contact’s details. Using a different CRM? Swap this one module for its new-contact trigger.

Step 2: Let Claude size up the lead

Add a Claude module, Create a Prompt, paste your key, pick Sonnet. Give it your routing rules:

Read this new CRM contact and route it.
Contact: {{fields from Step 1}}

Return one line: Segment (one of West, Central, East, Unknown) |
one-line who-they-are | why it matters. Decide the segment only
from the contact details. If unclear, use Unknown.

Swap in your own segments or territories. Giving Claude a fixed list to choose from keeps the routing predictable.

Step 3: Post it to the right Slack channel

Add Slack, Send a Message, connect Slack, and map Claude’s line into the message. To route by segment, add a Make router or a filter so West-tagged leads post to the west channel, and so on. Start with one channel, then split once it works.

How do you run it and check the result?

Click Run once. Make takes a recent contact, Claude categorizes it, and the lead posts to Slack. When I tested this, the segment call was right as long as the contact details carried a real signal like a location or company, and vague records landed in Unknown, exactly as the prompt instructed. Tune the segments, then turn the scenario on.

After that, the “whose lead is this” question answers itself. New contacts surface in the right channel within seconds, and the rep who owns them can move before the lead goes cold.

What does this cost to run?

Piece	Free tier	If you outgrow it
Make	1,000 operations/month free	Core plan from about $9/month
Claude API	Pay per use	Reading one contact on Sonnet costs a fraction of a cent
HubSpot	Free CRM tier works	Paid tiers as you grow
Slack	Free plan works	Paid from about $7/user/month

Each contact is three Make operations and a sliver of Claude. A router adds no real cost. More on tiers in our Make guide.

What can go wrong, and how do you avoid it?

• Everything lands in Unknown. The contact records are too thin to route. Capture a location or company on the form feeding your CRM.
• It guesses a segment with no basis. Tell Claude to use Unknown when unsure, as the prompt does.
• Slack rejects the post. Check the connection has permission to post in the channel.
• Contact data is personal. Post only what the team needs in Slack; keep the full record in the CRM.

The same trigger-brain-route shape runs many builds. See Make AI scenarios.

How do you build this in Zapier or n8n instead?

Same three jobs, different names.

Job	Make	Zapier	n8n
Catch a contact	Watch Contacts	New Contact trigger	HubSpot Trigger node
Categorize it	Claude module	Claude (Anthropic) action	Anthropic node
Post to Slack	Send a Message	Slack Send Channel Message	Slack node

Make and Zapier are easiest to start. Zapier vs Make vs n8n compares all three.

Common questions about this build

Do I have to use HubSpot?

No. Any CRM with a new-contact trigger works, and so does a Google Sheet. Swap the first module; the Claude and Slack steps are unchanged.

Can it route to different channels automatically?

Yes. Add a Make router after Claude and send each segment to its own channel. Start with one channel while you tune the prompt.

What if it routes a lead wrong?

It posts to Slack, where a human sees it instantly and can move it. Nothing is hidden or auto-assigned beyond the channel post.

Can it notify by email or Teams instead?

Yes. Swap the Slack module for Gmail or Microsoft Teams. The routing logic stays in Claude.

Is the chat app the same as the API?

Same models, different door. Make needs an API key from the console, not the chat login.

Sources and official docs

• Creating a scenario (Make Help)
• Claude API overview (Anthropic)
• Slack Help Center
• Claude on Make (integrations)
• CRM — Grokipedia

Last reviewed: May 2026. Make, Claude, HubSpot, and Slack update their interfaces; check the official pages for exact button names.

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