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"Do you mind if I record this call?" is undoubtedly one of the most awkward things a seller can say to their prospects.
During my decade in sales, the views on call recording have changed dramatically. Before Gong and Chorus poured hundreds of millions into establishing the "revenue intelligence" category, call recording was associated with call centers of your utility provider, not a consultative B2B conversation.
Things have changed quite a bit! You hop on a call with a prospective new vendor, and a pesky little "Note-taker" is already there before your host enters the virtual room.
Yet despite its prevalence, call recording remains a mystery to many. Does it make sales reps feel like a big brother is watching them? Does it change how buyers behave during discovery conversations, knowing that everything they say will stay on record forever? Is it even GDPR-compliant? Does anyone even watch them…?
We sat down with experts to debunk the most common call recording myths and show you the best way to adopt this fantastic technology for your team.
Why you should care about recording sales meetings
What's the first phrase that comes to mind when someone says "Call Recording"?
For me and many others, it’s usually something like "for training and quality purposes".
This is indeed the primary and most evident advantage of call recording—capturing real customer conversations in the field and leveraging them for training, particularly for new hires, including sales leadership. While training remains a significant motive for implementing call recording, it's not the only one.
The top-performing companies leverage meeting recordings to improve their workflows and elevate customer experience. Here's how:
- AI-powered Meeting Summaries: Recapping every customer interaction and pulling out key questions, action items and discussion points to augment manual meeting notes
- Snippets of Most Important Moments: Creating short clips of key meeting moments, categorizing them into folders and playlists and sharing them with the buyer and internally
- Faster Collaboration: Instantly sharing snippets from customer conversations with sales engineering or product teams to find answers to difficult questions and solve complex customer requests quickly
- Better CRM Hygiene: Automatically tracking activity on behalf of the sales rep and syncing meeting summaries, key details and next steps to the CRM
- More Accurate Forecasting: Using data from meeting recordings to assess pipeline progression based on the frequency of interactions and details of customer discussions
Is call recording GDPR compliant?
Privacy concerns are keeping many companies away from the benefits of call recordings. Especially in Europe and in highly regulated industries like finance and healthcare, sales teams are wary of implementing call recording due to potential privacy concerns.
The words "GDPR compliance" tend to send shivers down our spines rather than inspire confidence. Is it even legal to record calls?
Broadly speaking, there are three requirements you need to fulfill to record meetings in a compliant manner:
- You need to inform all participants that you are recording the meeting
- You need to give everyone a chance to opt out of the recording
- You need to follow specific rules when it comes to processing and storing recordings
Leaving the third point aside, because most companies are beyond "Password123" as the gateway into their sacred customer data, let's dive deeper into the first two requirements.
At a minimum, as long as the electronic call lady says, "This call is being recorded", you have fulfilled the condition. In practice, starting a customer interaction this way does not make for a great icebreaker.
To soften the blow of the electronic recording announcement, we recommend letting your guests know that you're recording the meeting and how the person on the other side would benefit from the recording.
What to say to the customer about call recording
- Can we record this call? If you move forward in your evaluation, keeping track of what we discussed at the beginning will be helpful.
- Can we record this call? I want to share parts of this conversation with sales engineers and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
- Can we record this call? I want to share a demo recording or any other important details we discussed with you after the meeting.
With the announcement out of the way, you need to make sure everyone in the meeting "opts in" to the recording, and this is where things get tricky.
Most people are conflict-averse and would rather say nothing if they don't want to be recorded than confront you. But they instantly put their guard on, talk less, and give you fewer details than they otherwise would.
Imagine you're asking a Chief Security Officer about their biggest vulnerabilities ten minutes into your first meeting, with their answer captured by a soulless, ambivalent "note-taker" in the corner. No wonder buyers have tricky feelings about call recordings!
The second issue with consent is that everyone in the meeting has to agree to be recorded. Generic video conferencing technology treats recording as a binary option: it's either on or off; everyone gets recorded or no one. If you're on a call with five people and one of them doesn't agree to be recorded, you have to stop recording everyone in the meeting, including the people who don't mind being recorded, like yourself and your team.
How to make call recording buyer-friendly and complaint
Customer interactions are complex and nuanced, and generic video conferencing platforms were built long before business went virtual. Recording options during one specific conversation is an afterthought when catering to 100s of use cases.
One of the benefits of rebuilding video conferencing from scratch is that we got to re-think meeting recording from first principles, giving our customers and their meeting guests maximum flexibility and control.
If you use Salesroom, our platform will automatically capture consent from your guests in the meeting lobby, saving you awkward questions and making the beginning of the meeting more human.
But of course, it doesn't end there. Everyone who joins the meeting has a say over how they want to be recorded and can choose between video, audio and transcription. Maybe someone working from home doesn't want their private space captured in a first business meeting with strangers - turn off video recording. Someone may be concerned about privacy but sees the benefit of AI-powered summarisation technology for record-keeping - turn off video and audio and keep the transcription.
What if someone doesn't want to be recorded at all? No problem, they can turn off all three. But their choice won't affect other people in the meeting. Even if all your prospective buyers opt out of the recording, you can still compliantly and non-intrusively record yourself!
A one-sided conversation recording is not a complete record, but it will capture the essence of the conversation. You will still benefit from AI-based summarization tools, automated CRM updates, snippets and coaching playlists, and, if you're a Salesroom customer, Live Coaching in the meeting.
As a bonus, you'll eliminate the "note-taker" for good and can continue using revenue intelligence - your recording syncs with one click after the meeting.
Another problem with conventional call recording is that it's one-sided, with the meeting host holding all the power. Imagine the frustration of your buyers who show up to a recording meeting and then need to ask and rely on the meeting host to share the recording with them.
Contrary to popular sales belief, customers need and want access to these precious recordings. Buying processes are getting increasingly complex, with more stakeholders and hurdles than ever. Sharing a demo recording or a short snippet with the right stakeholder at the right time could save your champion an additional internal meeting (and shorten your sales cycle).
However, granting access to buyers is unnecessarily complicated with conventional video conferencing and revenue intelligence tools. Shared links expire after a few days, downloading a 30-minute recording from the video conferencing provider's servers and then uploading it to G Drive or Dropbox takes hours, and what if you need to cut a part of the recording out? For example, if you hit record too early in the meeting and discussed the deal with your colleague before the buyer joined?
Salesroom has got you covered here, too. Everyone who joins the meeting can access the meeting recording and highlights automatically through the buyer microsite. If buyers want to share it with their colleagues, it takes only one click to approve them. Salesroom will track engagement with meeting materials in the microsite to show you what resonates the most with each buyer and which prospects show greater buying intent.
Plus, to stop you from accidentally showing more than you intend to, Salesroom can automatically start recording only when buyers join the meeting, just adjust recording settings and you’re good to go.
Ready to Redefine Call Recording for Sales Success?
Navigating the realm of call recording in sales has evolved from an uncomfortable necessity to a strategic advantage. We debunked common myths, explored the transformative potential of meeting recordings, and tackled the GDPR compliance intricacies. Salesroom emerges not just as a solution but as a game-changer, redefining how recordings are conducted and shared.
With user-friendly consent management, flexible recording options, and a buyer-friendly approach, Salesroom stands at the forefront of a new era in call recording. It's not just about capturing conversations; it's about empowering sales teams, engaging prospects, and streamlining the entire process. Embrace the future of call recording with Salesroom and revolutionize your sales journey.
