If you’re leading or wrangling a big sales team, you know the pain: endless calls, scattered notes, and a pile of customer conversations that nobody can actually find later. This guide is for managers, sales ops folks, and power users who want to use Sembly to tag and organize meetings—without making everyone hate their lives.
Below, you’ll get a practical, no-nonsense playbook for tagging and sorting sales conversations in Sembly. It’s focused on what actually works in the real world, not what looks good in a slide deck.
Step 1: Decide What You’re Actually Trying to Find Later
Before you touch a single tag or set up a folder, clarify what you want to get out of this. Most sales teams don’t need to organize everything—just the stuff people actually search for. Ask yourself:
- When do we go looking for old conversations? (e.g., prepping renewals, tracking deal blockers, onboarding new reps)
- What do we wish we could find faster? (e.g., competitor mentions, pricing objections, decision-makers)
- Who’s going to use this? (If the answer is “just me,” keep it simple. If it’s the whole team, you’ll need some structure.)
Pro tip: Don’t overthink it. You can always tweak your approach once you see what people actually use.
Step 2: Build a Simple, Shared Tagging System
A tagging system only works if everyone uses it the same way. Here’s how to avoid chaos:
2.1. Pick a Small Set of Core Tags
Start with 5–10 tags that map to real sales needs. Examples:
- decision-maker
- objection
- pricing
- competitor
- next-steps
- renewal
- blocked
- referenceable-customer
Don’t create a tag for every single thing—nobody will use them, and you’ll drown in noise.
2.2. Make Tags Actionable
A good tag helps someone do something. “Follow-up” is better than “interesting.” “Objection” beats “discussion.” Whenever possible, use verbs or nouns that tie to sales actions.
2.3. Document the Tags—Somewhere Obvious
Write down what each tag means. Put it in your team wiki, your CRM, or pin it to Slack—just don’t keep it in your head.
2.4. Train the Team (But Keep It Short)
Run a quick demo. Five minutes is enough. The goal: everyone should be able to tag a meeting in under 30 seconds.
What doesn’t work: Letting everyone invent their own tags (“let a thousand flowers bloom”) leads to mess. Use a handful of agreed-upon tags, or expect confusion.
Step 3: Standardize When and How to Tag
Consistency beats complexity. Here’s how to make tagging second nature:
3.1. Tag During the Recap, Not Later
Encourage reps to tag meetings as soon as they finish—or even better, as they write their notes or summaries. If you leave it for “later,” it’ll never happen.
3.2. Use Sembly Shortcuts
Sembly lets you apply tags while reviewing or summarizing conversations. Make sure everyone knows where the tag controls are (they tend to be tucked away; show people once).
3.3. Batch Tagging: Acceptable, But Risky
If you must process a backlog, batch tagging can work. But tagging in bulk often means tagging badly—context gets lost. Use it sparingly.
3.4. Don’t Over-Tag
One to three tags per meeting is plenty. If a call has more than that, either your tags are too broad, or the meeting was a mess.
Step 4: Organize Conversations with Folders and Filters
Tags are for context. Folders and filters are for navigation.
4.1. Use Folders for Major Buckets
- Deals by stage (e.g.,
Discovery,Proposal,Negotiation) - Customer segments (e.g.,
Enterprise,SMB) - Strategic accounts
Don’t get granular—folders are for big categories. Too many and people revert to search.
4.2. Use Saved Filters for Common Searches
Set up saved searches for things like:
- All calls tagged objection in the last month
- Meetings with renewal coming up next quarter
- Calls involving a specific competitor
Share these filters with your team. It’s quicker than clicking through five folders.
4.3. Pin or Star Critical Conversations
If Sembly supports starring or pinning, use it for high-priority deals or calls you’ll reference often. It’s old-school, but it works.
Step 5: Automate Where It Makes Sense (But Don’t Rely on Magic)
There’s a lot of noise about AI auto-tagging. Here’s the honest take:
- Auto-tagging is useful for basics (e.g., picking up keywords like “competitor” or “pricing”).
- It’s not great for nuance. AI can’t tell if a “maybe” is a real objection or just polite conversation.
- Human review is still needed for anything important.
Set up auto-tagging to catch the obvious stuff, but have reps double-check tags on deals that matter.
Step 6: Review and Clean Up Regularly
Even the best system gets messy. Schedule a monthly or quarterly cleanup:
- Merge duplicate tags.
- Delete unused or pointless tags.
- Archive dead deals or irrelevant conversations.
- Spot-check a few tagged meetings to see if the system’s working.
If people keep using “other” or “miscellaneous,” your tags probably need work.
Step 7: Don’t Make Tagging a Chore
If your team hates tagging, they’ll stop doing it. Keep it quick and painless:
- No long lists of tags to scroll through.
- No mandatory tagging for every call—just the important ones.
- Recognize people who do it well (but don’t turn it into another sales contest).
What to Ignore
A few things that sound smart but usually aren’t worth it for sales teams:
- Tagging every conversation: You don’t need a post-mortem for every “Just checking in” call.
- Complex taxonomies: You’re not running a library. More categories = more confusion.
- Chasing 100% consistency: Good enough is good enough. Don’t waste time arguing about whether a call is “objection” or “concern.”
- Over-relying on AI: See above. It’s a helper, not a solution.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Tagging and organizing sales conversations in Sembly isn’t rocket science, but it does take discipline. Start simple. Make tweaks as you see what works (and doesn’t). The goal isn’t perfection—it’s helping your team find and use what matters, without extra busywork.
If you ever feel lost in a sea of tags, folders, and filters, just ask: “Can my team find what they need, when they need it?” If the answer’s yes, you’re on the right track. If not, prune ruthlessly and keep moving forward.