Building a $20/month sales assistant with OpenClaw

What this setup does

A developer on r/openclaw detailed how they built a sales assistant using OpenClaw to replace tools costing $500-2000/month. The system runs on a Mac Mini left on at home, with total costs limited to API usage averaging $20-35/month depending on volume.

Core functionality

• Inbox monitoring: OpenClaw watches email and flags warm leads or replies worth immediate attention, eliminating the need to scan through hundreds of emails each morning.
• Prospect research: Users describe target prospects in plain English (e.g., "HVAC companies in the Chicago suburbs with a website and phone number"). The system pulls data from Google Maps, cleans it, and produces a callable list.
• Personalized outreach: Takes prospect lists and writes first-touch emails based on website and LinkedIn research, creating emails with actual references to what the companies do rather than generic templates.
• Meeting prep: Before calls, the system aggregates information on the person and company from LinkedIn, recent news, job postings, and tech stack in about 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes.

Key implementation lessons

• Skills are critical: Don't try to prompt through complex workflows. Finding or writing the right skills makes a significant difference in performance.
• Start with one workflow: Get a single workflow solid before adding more. Attempting to set up everything at once resulted in a messy implementation.
• ICP definition matters: Outreach quality depends heavily on how well you define your Ideal Customer Profile upfront—garbage in, garbage out.
• Security practices: Lock down API keys, use environment variables, and restrict access to only necessary folders.