If your team spends more time wrangling meeting notes and chasing action items than actually moving deals forward, you’re not alone. The market is flooded with “meeting intelligence” and go-to-market (GTM) tools—each one promising to fix your sales calls, customer check-ins, and onboarding. But which ones actually make your meetings smoother, and which just add noise? This guide is for sales, CS, and RevOps folks who want a straight-shooting look at Avoma and its competitors, so you can pick the right tool and get back to work.
Why Streamlining Customer Meetings Actually Matters
Before we start lining up the contenders, let’s get real about the problem. Most sales and customer meetings fall apart for three reasons:
- No one remembers what was said or promised.
- Follow-ups slip through the cracks.
- Teams waste hours copying notes between tools.
If that sounds familiar, you’re probably looking for a tool that does at least three things well:
- Records and transcribes meetings (accurately, not “sort of”).
- Makes it dead simple to capture action items and next steps.
- Integrates with your CRM and calendar—without breaking things.
That’s the bar. Let’s see how the top options stack up.
The Players: Avoma and the Usual Suspects
Here’s who we’re comparing:
- Avoma: Positioning itself as an all-in-one meeting assistant for sales, customer success, and product calls.
- Gong: The big name in revenue intelligence, best known for call recording and analytics.
- Chorus (by ZoomInfo): Similar to Gong, with a focus on conversation intelligence.
- Fireflies.ai: Affordable AI-powered meeting transcription and note-taking.
- Otter.ai: Lightweight, mostly transcription-focused.
- Wingman (by Clari): Conversation intelligence with sales coaching features.
If you’re considering something outside this list, odds are it falls into one of two camps: “does less than these” or “costs more for the same stuff.”
What Actually Matters in a GTM Meeting Tool
It’s easy to get wowed by dashboards and AI claims. But here’s what to actually look for:
1. Call Recording and Transcription Quality - If the transcription is spotty, you’ll never trust it. - Bonus if it can handle accents, interruptions, and industry jargon.
2. Action Item and Next Steps Capture - Can it pull out tasks and owners, or does that still fall on you? - Does it nudge you to follow up, or just dump notes in a folder?
3. Integrations - Must sync with your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and calendar. - Check if it pushes notes and action items, not just raw transcripts.
4. Search and Coaching - Can you search for keywords, deals, or issues across calls? - Does it offer coaching insights that your team will actually use?
5. User Experience - How much training does it take to get value? - Does it make life easier or just add another tab?
6. Price - Are you paying for features you’ll never use? - Are there “gotchas” around storage, seats, or integrations?
Let’s see how Avoma and the rest fare.
Avoma: The All-In-One Approach
Avoma pitches itself as a meeting assistant, not just a recorder. Here’s what stands out:
Strengths: - Automatic agenda prompts: Preps your meeting before you even join, which is rare outside the higher end of the market. - Real-time transcription: Decent accuracy, even with some background noise. - Action items and topics: Uses AI to pull out next steps, pain points, and objections. It’s not perfect, but better than manual notes. - Integrations: Pushes summaries and action items directly to Salesforce, HubSpot, and others. Calendar sync is straightforward. - Collaboration: You can comment and @mention teammates right in the call summary. - Search: Lets you search across calls for topics or keywords—handy if you’re prepping for a renewal or escalation.
Weaknesses: - Learning curve: There’s a lot in the UI. It tries to do everything, so expect a couple of onboarding sessions. - AI summaries: Sometimes miss subtleties—if you rely on nuance, you still need to review recordings. - Price: Not the cheapest, especially if you want all the integrations.
Pro tip: If you have a mix of sales, CS, and product teams, Avoma’s versatility can pay off. If you’re sales-only, you might not use half the features.
Gong and Chorus: Revenue Intelligence Overkill?
Gong and Chorus are the big fish. Here’s the honest truth:
Strengths: - Top-notch transcription and call recording. - Deal analytics: Track deal health, talk time, competitor mentions, etc. - Coaching tools: Great for large teams with managers who care about ramping reps.
Weaknesses: - Complexity: Tons of features. If you just want “record, transcribe, and pull out action items,” these can feel like overkill. - Price: You’re paying for analytics and coaching, not just meetings. Plans start high and ramp fast with seats. - Integrations: Strong, but sometimes require admin help to set up and maintain. - Customization: You’ll spend time tuning it to your process.
Who it’s for: If you have a big outbound SDR team, or your execs want dashboards on everything, these make sense. For small teams or those who just want smoother meetings, it’s a bit much.
Fireflies.ai and Otter.ai: Budget Options With Limits
Fireflies and Otter are the go-tos if you just need transcription and basic note capture.
Fireflies.ai - Strengths: Cheap, easy to set up, integrates with a bunch of apps, and has some basic AI note-taking. - Weaknesses: Accuracy isn’t as good as the premium tools, and action item extraction is hit-or-miss. Integrations can feel half-baked.
Otter.ai - Strengths: Really fast, super simple, and mobile-friendly. Good for ad hoc meetings or interviews. - Weaknesses: Mostly just transcripts. Don’t expect CRM push or action item tracking.
Who it’s for: If you’re a solo founder, freelancer, or just need to remember what was said, these work. For structured sales or CS meetings, you’ll want more.
Wingman (by Clari): Coaching for Smaller Sales Teams
Wingman sits somewhere between Fireflies and Gong—more focused than the budget tools, less overwhelming than the big dogs.
Strengths: - Real-time sales coaching: Pops up tips and scripts during calls. - Decent transcription and note-taking. - Integrations: Works with CRMs and calendars, but not as deeply as Avoma. - Affordable: Cheaper than Gong/Chorus, with enough features for most.
Weaknesses: - Niche focus: Built for sales teams. If you want to include CS or product, you’ll run into walls. - Customization: Templates and coaching prompts are helpful, but you’ll need to tweak them for your use case.
Who it’s for: Small to midsize sales teams that want coaching without drowning in analytics.
What to Ignore (Seriously, Save Your Time)
- “AI-Powered” Everything: Most tools throw AI at the wall. If it can’t reliably extract action items or summarize calls, it’s just marketing.
- Email and Slack Notifications Overload: More notifications don’t mean better follow-through. If you’re drowning in pings, it’s a sign.
- Feature Bloat: Just because a tool offers a “deal health score” doesn’t mean you need it. Buy for your actual workflow, not what looks cool in a demo.
Choosing the Right Tool: A Practical Checklist
- Write down your top 2-3 meeting headaches. (Manual notes? Missed follow-ups? CRM double entry?)
- List your must-have integrations. (If it doesn’t work with your CRM or calendar, move on.)
- Decide who needs access. (Just sales? CS? Product? External guests?)
- Test with real meetings, not demos. (Most tools offer trials—run a real deal or onboarding call, and see if it helps.)
- Check for hidden costs. (Seats, storage, integration limits—all the usual tricks.)
- Ask your team: Did this actually save time? (If not, try something else.)
The Bottom Line: Don’t Overthink It
The best meeting tool is the one your team will actually use. For most growing sales and CS teams, Avoma hits the sweet spot between features and usability—especially if you need more than just transcripts. If you just want the basics, Fireflies or Otter will do. If you’re running a 50-person outbound team, Gong or Chorus might make sense (if you have the budget and patience).
Pick something, run with it for a month, and see if your meetings get less painful. If not, switch. It’s just a tool—don’t let it become the project. Keep it simple. Iterate as you grow. Your customers (and your calendar) will thank you.