The Complete Guide to Call Recordings for Sales and Marketing Teams

Dashboards and analytics give sales managers, sales coaches, and marketers a great deal of insight into reps’ performance, but sometimes, there’s no substitute for actually listening to phone calls.

Call recordings allow managers to listen on their own schedule instead of randomly listening to live calls in the hope of catching a teachable moment. When utilized with specific objectives in mind, reps can gain deep insight into sales and marketing efforts without violating prospects’ trust.

Here are 5 ways that recording calls can improve both sales and marketing performance: (learn more about best practices and the legality of call recording).

Improve Sales Training

By listening to a cross-section of calls by each rep, sales managers can get granular insight into each rep’s individual performance. Are reps overcoming objections? Are they hitting key talking points? A call recording can help managers identify every rep’s strengths and weaknesses.  Therefore, managers can do a better job of providing each rep with personalized training. With proper coaching, each rep can reach their maximum potential and better meet sales goals.

Improve Sales Strategy

Sales managers can use call recording to optimize sales strategies based on real-life scenarios continuously. Recordings enable managers to hone in on crucial strategic questions such as:

• What common questions are prospects asking?
• Which objections are continuously being raised?
• How are reps successfully overcoming obstacles?

Improve Marketing Messages

Marketers often create content based on which messages they think will resonate with leads, without ever hearing an actual sales call. But by listening to call recordings, marketers can identify real-world pain points and sales objections. With Zoom call transcription, it’s even easier to understand what comes up in conversations. Marketing can then craft collateral to help reps overcome those objections.

Give Marketing Deep Insight into Lead Quality

Is your Marketing department handing off “qualified leads” to Sales that are far from sales-ready? If so, it could mean that leads require more incubation from marketing before hand-off. Listening to call recordings give marketers insight into lead quality. Marketers can redefine their qualifying metrics to provide Sales with more qualified leads if necessary.

Audit Audio Quality

Your sales reps can deliver the best messages in the world, but it doesn’t matter if leads can’t properly understand them. We’ve all had conversations where the person on the other end sounded like they were standing on top of Mt. Everest. It only causes frustration and you are definitely going to miss the point of the call. Recording calls enables you to spot-check the audio quality of calls to make sure they are up to your company’s standards. 

Call Recording Best Practices

Call recording is generally legal on a federal level, but there are specific variances on the rules from state to state. Federal law allows call recording as long as one party to the conversation gives consent. This would mean that as long as your sales reps are aware their conversations are being recorded, it would not be required by law to make prospects or customers aware that calls are being recorded.

As a best practice, we recommend that if you make all parties aware when recording phone calls. First of all, there are currently twelve states that have issued two-party consent laws, in which all parties to a conversation must be made aware that the conversation is being recorded.

The FCC identifies the following three ways as accepted forms of notifying parties that the call is being recorded:

• Prior written or verbal consent of all parties
• A verbal notification before the recording is made
• An audible beep repeated at regular intervals during a call

Of these, the most common—and recommended—practice is to simply verbally notify customers that the call is being recorded for quality assurance. Customers can then make up their mind whether or not to continue with the conversation. After all, reps should always endeavor to build client relationships built on mutual trust.

What Marketing Can Learn from Sales Call Recordings

Sales call recordings are a goldmine of insights. Traditionally used for coaching reps, these recordings also hold immense value for marketing teams. Here’s how marketing can benefit from these real-life interactions and how Revenue.io can help record sales calls.

Enhance Buyer Personas with Real Data

Creating accurate buyer personas is crucial for modern marketing. Instead of relying solely on surveys and models, listening to sales calls provides:

• Real customer voices and phrases
• Insights into challenges and needs
• Validation and refinement of personas

Revenue.io’s Conversation AI analyzes thousands of calls to identify key themes, ensuring your personas reflect real customers.

Understand and Address Prospect Needs

Prospect needs and concerns change constantly. Sales call recordings reveal these shifts in real time. Benefits include:

• Adjusting marketing strategies quickly
• Creating relevant content (blogs, whitepapers, podcasts)
• Generating new sales enablement materials

Revenue.io’s real-time transcription and AI capabilities highlight recurring questions or objections, keeping your content spot-on.

Ensure Sales Reps Utilize Product Messaging in Every Pitch

Sales call recordings reveal how well sales reps use the product messaging crafted by marketing. Ensuring consistent use of this messaging in every pitch can significantly improve sales outcomes by:

• Analyzing calls to spot where reps diverge from core product messaging
• Providing real-time coaching using insights from recordings
• Measuring messaging effectiveness by tracking which messages resonate best with prospects and refine accordingly

Revenue.io’s AI-driven analysis and real-time feedback tools ensure your sales team consistently uses the right messaging, enhancing overall effectiveness and alignment.

Strengthen Sales Enablement

Reviewing call recordings helps marketing identify common objections and challenges sales reps face. This leads to:

• Targeted sales enablement content (guides, FAQs, training)
• Better response strategies for reps
• Improved sales performance

Revenue.io’s Moments™ delivers real-time content during sales calls, enhancing reps’ effectiveness.

Refine Messaging and Positioning

Are prospects confused by your messaging? Listening to calls can help:

• Identify confusing terms or messages
• Refine and clarify your marketing language
• Ensure alignment with prospect needs

Revenue.io’s AI-driven analysis pinpoints effective phrases and terminology, helping you fine-tune your messaging.

Improve Lead Quality

High-quality leads are essential. If sales teams frequently invalidate marketing qualified leads (MQLs), recordings can show why:

• Misalignment with defined personas
• Delays in lead follow-up
• Miscommunication between marketing and sales

Revenue.io’s platform integrates with Salesforce, providing detailed lead interaction analysis to improve conversion rates.

Boost SEO and SEM Strategies

Understanding the language prospects use is key for SEO and SEM. Sales call recordings reveal:

• Specific search terms and phrases
• Customer questions and concerns

Revenue.io’s integration with platforms like Google Analytics helps align your SEO strategies with actual customer language, improving keyword targeting and content relevance.

Identify Case Study Candidates

Case studiessa are powerful tools. Sales call recordings help identify satisfied customers who:

• Have successful outcomes
• Can provide compelling stories
• Are willing to share their experiences

Revenue.io’s data capture and analysis make it easy to find these success stories and develop detailed case studies.

Maximize Marketing ROI with Sales Call Recording Software

Revenue.io’s advanced AI and analytics turn sales calls into valuable marketing insights. Benefits include:

• Real-time transcription
• Conversational AI
• Deep CRM integration

Every conversation is an opportunity to learn and improve, driving marketing effectiveness and business growth.

Valuable insights are hidden in sales call recordings to teach reps to success. With the right tools, marketing teams can unlock this data to drive strategy and content creation. Start leveraging your sales call recordings today and see how Revenue.io can help transform insights into action.

Tell us – How is your marketing team using sales call recordings in 2025?

How to Use Call Recordings to Coach Reps to Success

One of the most rewarding aspects of managing an inside sales team is helping your reps to become more successful salespeople. Hiring sales reps is one of a company’s most important investments. And turnover is costly!

In fact, a DePaul University’s Sales Effectiveness Survey found the average cost of turnover for a single sales rep to be $114,957! That’s why it’s so important for inside sales managers to intervene early and often, ensuring that reps are on pace to meet their goals. And one of the best ways to coach reps to success is by using call recordings.

Going Beyond Call Metrics with Call Recordings

Predictive analytics can tell you when a sales rep is not on pace to meet goals. But to truly discover why a rep is lagging, it’s vital to listen to actual call recordings. By listening to individual sales calls, you can gain deep insight into some of the best ways to help reps improve.

Recording phone calls has been a favorite tactic in the customer service industry for decades in order to improve agents’ effectiveness. But inside sales teams can benefit just as much from recording phone calls. Managers can hear, first-hand, which pitches are converting phone leads and which are causing prospects to head for the hills.

3 Ways Call Recordings Can Ramp Up Revenue

Here are 3 powerful ways that recording phone calls can help you provide sales coaching to reps.

Pivot Messaging to Be More Successful

By listening to call recordings discover that your all-star reps are actually using entirely different approaches to what you would have prescribed. The best sales reps are famous for thinking on their feet. They may have discovered angles or selling points that had never even occurred to you. And often this can be replicated. Likewise, you might find that lagging reps aren’t actually following the sales training you provided and are delivering the wrong messages.

Identify Common Barriers and Then Smash Them

More often than not companies will encounter specific sticking points over and over again. Without closely monitoring the content of calls, however, it’s difficult to know what these sticking points are. Listening to calls gives sales leaders the power the ability to identify routine causes of friction and then work with reps strategically to break past these barriers during future calls.

Help Reps Succeed Consistently

One of the biggest blocks that prevents individual reps from succeeding is a lack of consistency. Sales guru Tony Robbins once said, “it’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”  This is so true in the world of inside sales. The most powerful sales tactics are usually those that are easiest to replicate.  I know I’ve observed that a particular rep might have one week where he’s red hot followed by a week where he can’t close anything other than the door to the microwave. Sure, every rep is going to have good weeks and bad weeks. But by listening to call recordings, managers can gauge whether there are factors at play other than luck. Perhaps reps aren’t consistently following their sales playbook.

Using Call Recordings as a Coaching Tool

Call recordings can be powerful training tools. They’re great during one-on-one sessions with reps. And some of the most successful sales organizations we’ve worked with also critique call recordings as a group. In order to help you coach your reps to success, we created the Ultimate Inside Sales Call Evaluation Checklist. This will help you identify where each rep is strong, as well as key areas for improvement.

Ways Sales Reps Can Use Call Recordings (Without Feeling Micromanaged)

In the world of sales, call recording can be a touchy subject. Some management teams are incredibly passionate about utilizing them as they feel it gives them insight into their sales reps’ day-to-day activities. However, some management teams might worry that their sales reps will feel micromanaged if their calls are recorded. If that’s the case, here are three ways that your reps can use sales recordings on their own without feeling like higher-ups are micromanaging them.

Taking Notes

Multitasking is a valuable skill for any employee, but as a rep,  you should be 100% focused on each and every sales conversation. Especially since a big part of why customers will by your solution is you. Focusing heavily on your conversation can make taking notes a challenge. When people think “call recordings” their mind often goes straight to coaching. Which isn’t wrong by any means and is actually extremely powerful, but call recordings are actually a huge resource. They enable you to go back and listen to an entire call (or the important bits and pieces) and take more detailed notes. One great thing about Revenue.io call recordings is they’re also transcribed. So on top of being uploaded into the Salesforce activity history in real time, you don’t need to worry about listening to a lengthy conversation when you can skim and scan to the relevant information.

Quality Assurance

At some point or another, we’ve all been in a “he said she said” situation in sales. As an example, a prospect might insist he was quoted a better price than what you offered. It can put a pit in your stomach and also can take away your credibility as a sales rep. That ability to go back and listen to a phone inspires confidence can help you breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that you can prove you did the right thing. Call recordings with Revenue.io are stored indefinitely, so no matter how long your sales cycle is, you can be confident that your word is your bond.

Handing Over Opportunities

Some sales teams are split into two areas: Business Development Representatives (BDRs) and Account Executives (AEs). This usually means a BDR is cold calling or working with inbound marketing leads and qualifying them, before handing them off to the AE for the next step in the sales cycle. At this point in the sales cycle, call recordings can have multiple uses. Part of this ties back into taking notes. As thorough as we all like to be, sometimes it’s the little details that get missed that are most crucial to closing a deal. And the ability for an AE to be able to listen to a call, they can hear every detail and focus on what is most relevant to moving the deal forward. Additionally, by listening to a live conversation with their potential opportunity, they can gauge what type of persona they’re working with and adjust their messaging accordingly.

Key Elements to Discuss During Sales Call Recording Reviews

Coaching is critical to the productivity of sales reps. According to SEB, no other sales investment improves rep performance like coaching can. When it comes to sales coaching, call recordings are a cornerstone. Recordings provide full visibility into each reps’ sales process and create a variety of different points to review and perfect.

1. Call Goal

Each call needs to have a specific goal. Goals vary from call to call and include qualifying a prospect,  scheduling a demo or follow up, or speaking with a decision maker. Regardless of the actual goal, it’s important that the call end with both parties agreeing on next steps. As you start the call review, be sure to ask your rep what goal they were trying to accomplish on the call. After listening to the call with them, ask them if the goal was attained.

There may be other aspects of the call that require coaching or more critique, but simply focus on identifying whether or not the goal was accomplished. This will help give your rep clarity in terms of what you’re looking for, especially as it relates to conversion metrics. From there, you’ll be able to dig a little deeper into the more qualitative components of the call.

2. Prospect/Customer Experience

It’s only natural to simply focus on your rep when completing a call review. However, you should pay special attention to the prospect or customer as well. Consider the following when doing so:

• How involved are they?
• Do they lose interest at some point?
• What is their attitude?
• Are the rep and customer understanding one another?

Effective communication takes two. When reviewing call recordings, be sure to listen to both sides of the interaction, not just what your rep says.

3. Pitch

It takes practice and feedback to become really effective at delivering an excellent sales pitch. When reviewing it, break it into sections such as pre-pitch research, asking the right questions, objection handling, finding/providing a solution for the prospect’s problem, and understanding the persona. Evaluate each part based on the type of sales call it is. Consider if your rep followed the correct structure and if they stuck to the guidelines in their sales playbook. If you don’t have a playbook, you may want to develop one as a guide for new reps.

4. Accuracy/honesty

It’s not unusual for sales reps to bend the truth. Listen carefully to determine if they stick to the facts, tell white lies, or stretch the truth. If they are presenting inaccurate information, hiding a truth that they perceive could create an obstacle, or are making unrealistic promises, you’ll need to correct this behavior. Remind them that honesty is always the best policy. Besides, not being honest may lead to customers that churn quickly once they realize you can’t deliver on promises. You want customers that are a good fit and will stick with you on the long term.

5. Confidence

With practice and reinforcement, your reps should become increasingly confident and proficient. Confidence can impact success in sales. This makes it important to evaluate rep confidence when reviewing calls. Consider how confident your rep sounds when using the script. Are they in control of the call or has the customer taken control? Also, listen to how effectively they’re handling objections and other scenarios they’ve been trained in.

6. Energy

It’s easy enough to be influenced by the energy level of others, so it’s important to assess how well your rep maintains their energy throughout the call. Listen to hear if they are being affected by the prospect’s attitude, tone, etc. or if they’re controlling their own energy level. They should sound like they are having fun and that they are smiling. Prospects and customers can hear this over the phone! Some reps may also do better with this at certain times of the day. Figure out if their calling schedule needs adjustments and continue to optimize from there.

7. Connection/Rapport

Listen to determine if your rep was able to successfully connect with the prospect and develop a level of rapport. This can be the difference between successfully advancing the deal or failure to do so. Remember, people want to do business with people that they like, and especially, trust.

When completing call reviews, be sure to set your emotions aside. Focus only on criteria in an objective manner. It will allow you to provide better quality coaching feedback for your reps and help them to improve their productivity that much more. Start assessing these areas during call reviews for continual rep growth. Check out part 2 of this series where we’ll discuss the other seven call characteristics to review.

Call Recordings as a Sales Coaching Tool

Call recordings are powerful coaching tools; the game film of sales teams. Reviewing your reps’ call recordings can help improve their pitch, presentation skills, and more. Here’s how to assess each during sales call recording reviews.

8. Listening

Listening is critical to sales success for a variety of reasons. Reps won’t learn much about their prospect’s needs and concerns if they’re doing all the talking. They also won’t be able to effectively qualify them or close the deal if they don’t listen carefully. There are schools of thought concerning the exact best ratio for listening and speaking. It all boils down to what Richard Branson said, “Listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak.” You want to pay attention to several things when evaluating your reps’ listening skills. First, you’ll want to look at their talk-time ratio. What’s the overall talk time percentage compared to the prospect? Did they interrupt their prospect? Did they ask clarifying or additional questions when the prospect provided vague or incomplete information? Watching for these and bring them to your rep’s attention so they may strengthen their listening skills.

9. Proposing

Your reps need to understand their prospects’ needs and challenges before presenting the best solution. When you’re evaluating this portion of the call, do you hear your reps summarizing prospect’s pain points? Are they proposing solutions that are aligned with the prospect’s needs?

10. Flags

It’s important that your team members be able to recognize and handle red flags as they occur during calls. Some potential flags include a prospect’s hesitation or indecisiveness or their unwillingness to commit to next steps. Listen to see if your reps identified these as they come up on the call. Did they ask more questions to get to the root of the issue? Did they face it head on or retreat from it? It’s crucial that your reps handle red flags in the most appropriate way, even if that means asking for additional help internally.

11. Creativity

Your reps need to be consultants, not just salespeople. Because of this, sometimes the usual objection handling won’t actually address the challenge being presented by the prospect. In situations like these, creativity may be necessary. You want to listen to see how well your reps think on their feet. Were they able to come up with a creative response when needed? If so, what new ways did they neutralize a prospect’s reluctance or work around specific obstacles? If they weren’t successful in working through the situation, this is a chance to discuss it. What went wrong? What went right? And what might be the best ways to deal with this type situation in the future? This way they’ll be better prepared next time.

12. Time Management

Time management is something we all strive to improve. When it comes to sales call duration, reps need to primarily be mindful of the prospect’s time and schedule. Depending on the type of call (discovery, demo, or follow up), the call duration will vary. Focus on the pace of the call — are reps setting clear expectations at the beginning of the call? Consider what was accomplished during the call. Could this have been done in less time? If so, how?

13. Qualifying skills

To make call time most productive, reps must be able to identify unqualified prospects effectively. Otherwise they will be wasting their time with the wrong prospects. Are they qualifying prospects that they shouldn’t? Listen to be sure that reps understand what questions to ask prospective clients based on roles. Are they recognizing the roles correctly? If they need to strengthen this skill, check out this resource. It might help you help them improve.

14. Focus

One thing reps need to remember is to stay on topic. It’s easy enough to take a tangent when speaking with a prospect. This is especially true when rapport develops and the conversation gets off track. Reps need to be sure to redirect when this happens. What to watch out for here? Look at call length. Long calls aren’t necessarily bad, but you want to be sure they are productive.

If the call took a detour, did the rep artfully bring it back on track or lose a lot of time on the tangent? Underperforming reps who learn to avoid losing focus during calls can improve their performance by doing so and become top closers.