If you’re spending more time typing up sales call notes than actually selling, you’re not alone. Manual transcribing is a time sink, and most salespeople just want the details—fast, accurate, and organized. If you’ve heard about using Fireflies to automate this process but don’t want to wade through fluffy marketing copy or confusing setup screens, this guide is for you.
Below, I’ll break down exactly how to get your sales calls transcribed automatically with Fireflies, what works, what’s just noise, and how to avoid common headaches. Let’s keep it simple and practical.
Why Bother with Automatic Transcription?
Before you dive in, here’s the deal: automatic transcription isn’t perfect, but it’s miles better than scribbling notes or playing back recordings. The real benefit is having searchable, shareable, and (mostly) accurate summaries of your customer conversations. If you’re in sales, that means less admin and more selling.
What automatic transcription actually gets you:
- Full call transcripts you can search or skim
- Actionable summaries (sometimes—more on this later)
- The ability to review key moments without replaying the whole call
- Easy sharing with your team or CRM
What it doesn’t do (yet):
- Replace actual follow-up or genuine listening
- Always get every word right (expect the occasional goof)
- Interpret sarcasm, jargon, or thick accents perfectly
Step 1: Sign Up for Fireflies (and Pick a Plan)
First things first, head over to Fireflies and create an account. The free plan covers basic transcription, but if you want integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, Salesforce, or longer storage, you’ll need a paid plan.
Do you need to pay?
- If you’re transcribing a couple of calls a week, free is fine.
- If you want team features, CRM syncing, or lots of calls, you’ll need to upgrade.
Pro tip:
Start with the free tier. Upgrade only if you actually hit those limits.
Step 2: Connect Your Calendar and Meeting Apps
Fireflies works best when it can “see” your meetings. Connecting your calendar (Google or Outlook) allows Fireflies to auto-join calls. It’s as simple as clicking ‘Connect’ in the dashboard and giving permissions.
Apps you can connect:
- Google Calendar
- Outlook Calendar
- Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, and others
Watch out for:
- Permission overload—Fireflies asks for a lot, but it needs calendar access to auto-join.
- Double check which calendar you’re connecting if you use multiple accounts.
Ignore:
Manual upload unless you’re transcribing old recordings. Auto-join is the real time saver.
Step 3: Set Up Auto-Join for Sales Calls
The magic of Fireflies is its bot joining your calls and quietly recording/transcribing in the background.
How to set up auto-join: 1. Go to the Fireflies dashboard. 2. Under “Settings” or “Integrations,” find your connected calendar. 3. Enable “Auto-Join” for meetings that match certain keywords (like “Sales Call,” “Demo,” etc.) or for all meetings. 4. Save your preferences.
What works:
- Using keywords keeps the bot from joining every meeting (no need for it to transcribe internal chit-chat).
- You can always add or remove keywords as you go.
What can go wrong:
- If your meeting invites don’t include the right keywords, the bot won’t join.
- If you forget to invite Fireflies to a call, nothing gets recorded.
Pro tip:
Add “Fireflies” as a participant in recurring sales call invites to guarantee it joins.
Step 4: Run Your Sales Calls—Let Fireflies Do Its Thing
Once set up, Fireflies will automatically join scheduled calls and start recording/transcribing. You’ll get an email or dashboard notification once the transcript is ready.
What you need to do:
- Show up to your call as usual.
- Don’t stress about note-taking—just focus on the conversation.
- Let your customer know the call is being recorded (seriously, cover your compliance bases).
What to ignore:
- You don’t need to manually start or stop anything if auto-join is working.
Heads up:
Some meeting platforms will show the Fireflies bot as a participant (“Fireflies.ai Notetaker”). If you want to avoid awkward questions, give your prospect a heads up beforehand.
Step 5: Review and Organize Your Transcripts
After each call, Fireflies will process and email you a link to the transcript. It stores all your calls in its dashboard, searchable by keywords, participants, or date.
Key features to actually use: - Search bar: Find key phrases or questions from your calls instantly. - Highlight & comments: Mark important sections for follow-up. - Download options: Export as text, PDF, or audio if you want to save offline.
Stuff you can skip: - Overly fancy “AI summaries”—they’re hit-or-miss. Glance at them, but don’t rely on them for action items. - Over-complicating with tags or categories unless you’re managing a big team.
Pro tip:
If you’re syncing with your CRM, double-check the notes before they get auto-pushed. AI isn’t always context-aware.
Step 6: Integrate with Your CRM (Optional, but Useful)
If you’re using Salesforce, HubSpot, or another CRM, Fireflies can push call notes and transcripts directly into your contact records.
How to set it up: 1. In the Integrations section, find your CRM and connect accounts. 2. Map fields (Fireflies walks you through this). 3. Choose what to sync: full transcript, summary, just action items.
What’s good:
- Helps keep your follow-up organized.
- Saves a bunch of time updating CRM records.
What’s not:
- Sometimes the sync can be glitchy or create duplicate entries. Always double-check after setup.
- Not all CRMs are supported equally well—check the integration list before committing.
Step 7: Manage Privacy and Compliance
This isn’t the “fun” part, but it matters. Recording calls (even for note-taking) is a legal grey area in some states/countries.
What to do: - Always inform participants the call is being recorded and transcribed. - Check your local regulations (especially for calls crossing state or national borders). - Use Fireflies’ settings to add an automatic disclaimer to your invites if you’re forgetful.
What to ignore:
- Don’t rely on “nobody will notice.” Compliance headaches aren’t worth the risk.
Step 8: Tweak, Test, and Iterate
No system is perfect out of the box. Spend a couple of weeks actually using Fireflies on your real sales calls before you go “all in.”
What to pay attention to: - Are transcripts accurate enough for your needs? - Is the bot joining the right calls (and only the right calls)? - Are you actually saving time, or just adding another tool to your stack?
If something’s not working: - Review your calendar keywords and auto-join settings. - Test with a dummy meeting. - Don’t be afraid to reach out to support—they’re responsive, if a bit slow on free plans.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
Works: - Auto-join and calendar syncing are reliable if set up right. - Transcription quality is good for clear audio and typical calls. - Call storage and search functions are genuinely useful.
Doesn’t Work So Well: - Heavy accents, crosstalk, or poor audio can trip up transcriptions. - “AI-generated” summaries and action items are sometimes vague or miss context. - Occasionally, the bot will miss a call if calendar invites are misconfigured.
Ignore: - Overly complex workflows or tagging. Keep it simple unless you have a huge sales org. - FOMO about premium features unless you actually need them.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple
Setting up Fireflies for automatic sales call transcription isn’t rocket science, but it does take five minutes of real setup. Don’t overthink it—get the basics working, see if it actually helps, and iterate as you go. Focus on saving time and getting better insights from your calls, not chasing every shiny feature.
You can always tweak or upgrade later. For now, let Fireflies handle the grunt work so you can get back to selling.