Sales meetings are supposed to move deals forward, not eat up your day with note-taking and chasing down action items. But let's be honest: most salespeople spend way too much time trying to remember who said what and who’s supposed to do what next. If you’re tired of scribbling notes or hunting for lost action items, this guide is for you.
We’ll walk through making Sembly (sembly.html) do the heavy lifting—so you can focus on selling, not on paperwork.
Why Automate Meeting Notes and Actions? (And What to Watch Out For)
Before we dive in, here's the deal: Automating meeting notes sounds great, but it's not magic. AI can capture most of what matters, but it won’t always read between the lines or spot that a vague “Let’s follow up” actually means “You need to send a proposal by Thursday.” Still, if you set things up right, you'll save hours every week and get far fewer headaches.
Automating works best when: - Your meetings follow a regular structure (pipeline reviews, deal updates, client calls). - Everyone knows you’re recording and is on board. - You’re okay with the occasional “AI didn’t quite get that” moment.
It works less well if: - Your team hates being recorded. - Most action items happen in side conversations or over chat. - You expect the AI to summarize business strategy from a rambling hour-long call. (It won’t.)
If you’re still with me, let’s get to the practical stuff.
Step 1: Get Sembly Set Up With Your Calendar and Meeting Tools
First, you need Sembly up and running. The platform can join meetings automatically, but only if you connect it to your calendar and meeting apps (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc.).
To get started: - Sign up for Sembly and log in. - Head to Settings > Integrations. - Connect your work calendar (Google, Outlook, whatever you use). - Link Sembly with your video meeting tool(s).
Pro tip:
Use a dedicated service account (like sales.bot@yourcompany.com) for Sembly if your team is privacy-conscious. It’s less weird than having “Sembly” pop up as a participant under someone’s real name.
Step 2: Invite Sembly to Your Sales Meetings (Automatically, If You Can)
You can invite Sembly to any online meeting by adding its email as a participant. But the real time-saver is letting Sembly join every sales meeting automatically.
Here’s how: - When you schedule a meeting, just invite Sembly’s email address. - If you connected your calendar, you can set rules so Sembly auto-joins meetings with certain keywords (like “Sales” or “Pipeline”). - Double-check your privacy policy before recording external client calls. Some folks get jumpy about bots on the line.
What to ignore:
Don’t bother inviting Sembly to every single meeting—skip the one-on-ones, sensitive HR chats, or anything not sales-related. More isn’t always better. You’ll just clutter your Sembly dashboard with noise.
Step 3: Fine-Tune Sembly’s Note-Taking Features
Once Sembly is in your meetings, it’ll generate transcripts and summaries. But out of the box, these can be generic or miss the mark for sales teams.
Dial in your settings: - Go to your Sembly workspace settings. - Set the default summary style (Action Items, Decisions, Next Steps). - Turn on auto-highlighting for keywords like “proposal,” “demo,” “follow up,” “send,” and “contract.” - Teach Sembly your team’s lingo. If your team uses internal jargon, add these terms to custom vocabulary.
Pro tip:
Don’t expect perfection. Sembly will get most “assignments” and “asks,” but you’ll need to skim the action items for anything that got missed or misattributed—especially in fast-paced calls with people talking over each other.
Step 4: Review and Edit Meeting Notes (Don’t Skip This)
AI-generated notes are a game-changer, but they’re not foolproof. After each meeting, make it a habit to check Sembly’s summary and action items.
Best way to do this: - Right after the call, open the transcript and summary. - Skim the action items list. Edit anything that’s unclear, missing, or wrong. - Tag teammates or assign actions directly if Sembly supports it (depends on your plan). - If something sensitive slipped in, delete or redact before sharing.
What actually works:
This review takes 2-3 minutes, tops. Far less time than writing notes from scratch. Don’t trust AI to get context or tone exactly right—humans are still better at nuance.
Step 5: Share Action Items With Your Team (Automatically, If Possible)
No one wants another place to check for to-dos. Sembly can push action items to email, Slack, or even CRM tools, depending on your setup.
Set up sharing: - In Sembly’s settings, link your preferred channels (Slack, Teams, or email). - Choose if you want the whole summary, just action items, or a combination. - For bigger teams, create channels like #sales-actions so everyone sees follow-ups without cluttering inboxes.
Pro tip:
If your CRM allows, integrate Sembly so action items (like “Send proposal to Acme Corp”) show up as tasks right in your pipeline. This works in theory, but check if your CRM integration is solid—some are flaky or only support basic info.
Step 6: Build a Routine—And Don’t Automate Everything
Automation is great, but it can’t replace human judgment. Set a routine so: - Sembly always joins key sales meetings. - Someone (could rotate) reviews and edits notes within 10 minutes after each meeting. - Action items are assigned and tracked—don’t just let them pile up.
What to ignore:
Don’t bother automating low-value meetings or trying to capture every single conversation. Focus on the meetings that actually drive revenue or customer relationships.
What Sembly Does Well (and Where It Falls Short)
The good: - Saves a ton of time on routine note-taking. - Captures most clear action items and next steps. - Integrates with popular calendars and meeting tools. - Makes it easy to share notes so nothing falls through the cracks.
The not-so-good: - Not great with crosstalk, heavy accents, or jargon it doesn’t know. - Sometimes misses subtle or implied to-dos. - Summaries can be too generic unless you tweak settings and do quick edits. - Integrations with CRM tools are hit-or-miss.
It’s a tool, not a mind reader. Treat it as a reliable assistant, not your chief of staff.
Keep It Simple—And Iterate
Automating meeting notes with Sembly is a no-brainer for sales teams who want to spend more time closing and less time typing. But don’t overcomplicate it. Start with your most important meetings, tweak your settings, and always give action items a quick human check.
You’ll save hours, miss fewer follow-ups, and maybe even stop dreading those endless sales calls. Try it, see what works for your team, and adjust as you go.