If you’re spending hours trying to make sense of customer calls, you’re not alone. GTM (go-to-market) teams get buried under transcripts, half-remembered quotes, and endless action items. But most teams never actually squeeze real insights from these calls—they just move on to the next fire drill. This guide is for anyone who wants to actually use call data, not just collect it. We’ll walk through using Otter to transcribe your customer calls, pull out what matters, and actually improve your GTM strategy without drowning in busywork.
Why Transcribe Customer Calls Anyway?
Let’s get something out of the way: recording and transcribing calls isn’t magic. If you think that just running every call through Otter will suddenly unlock deep GTM secrets, you’re going to be disappointed.
But, if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and actually read (and act on) what customers say, transcripts can help you:
- Spot patterns in questions, objections, or feature requests
- Find the exact words your customers use (for better messaging)
- Share real customer quotes with the rest of your team—without playing telephone
- Save time chasing action items or “what did they say about X?” moments
You still need to think and analyze, but Otter can take the grunt work out of getting there.
Step 1: Set Up Otter for Your Calls
First, a reality check: Otter can’t fix a broken process or make a bad call good. But it can make a decent call much easier to work with.
Choose How You'll Record
Otter gives you a few ways to capture calls:
- Direct integration: Otter can join Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams calls automatically if you give it access.
- Manual upload: Record your calls (with permission!) using your meeting tool, then upload the audio file to Otter.
- Mobile app: You can record in-person conversations directly via the Otter mobile app.
Pro tip: If you have team calls, set up a shared workspace so everyone can see the same transcripts. It beats hunting through someone’s inbox for an MP3.
Get Consent—Seriously
This isn’t just a legal checkbox. Make sure you tell people you’re recording and transcribing, and get their OK. It keeps things above board and builds trust.
Step 2: Transcribe Your Calls
Once your call is recorded, Otter will usually generate a transcript within a few minutes. Here’s what to do next:
- Check for accuracy: Otter’s AI is good, but not perfect. Names, technical terms, and accents can trip it up. Scan the transcript for obvious errors, especially if you’re going to share quotes.
- Clean up speakers: Sometimes Otter mixes up who’s talking. You can assign speaker names for clarity—especially helpful if you’re sharing with sales, product, or leadership down the line.
What to ignore: Don’t waste time fixing every “um” and “uh.” Focus on getting the big stuff right.
Step 3: Organize and Tag Transcripts
If you’re doing this for more than a couple calls, you’ll want some basic organization. Here’s what actually works:
- Folders or workspaces: Group transcripts by project, customer segment, or campaign.
- Custom tags: Use tags like “pricing objection,” “feature request,” or the customer’s industry. This makes it a lot easier to pull relevant examples later.
- Summaries: Otter can auto-summarize, but don’t trust it to know what matters. Skim the transcript and jot your own quick summary—just a few bullet points.
Pro tip: If it takes you longer to organize than to read the transcript, you’re overthinking it. Keep it simple.
Step 4: Analyze for GTM Insights
Here’s where most teams get stuck. The point isn’t to have a giant pile of transcripts—it’s to find real patterns that influence your GTM strategy.
What to Look For
- Common objections: Are multiple customers getting hung up on the same point?
- Unexpected questions: What’s confusing or unclear in your pitch or onboarding?
- Feature requests: Are people asking for the same thing again and again?
- Language customers use: The way real customers describe your product is often way clearer than your marketing copy.
How to Do It
- Search and highlight: Use Otter’s search to jump to keywords like “price,” “integration,” or “frustrated.” Highlight and comment on key sections.
- Pull real quotes: Copy-paste short, punchy customer quotes into a shared doc or slide deck. These are gold for messaging and internal buy-in.
- Use tags to group evidence: If you’ve tagged transcripts well, you can quickly pull all the “pricing objection” examples to show a trend.
What doesn’t work: Don’t expect Otter’s AI-generated “insights” to do your thinking for you. Use them as a starting point, but always sanity-check with your own eyes.
Step 5: Share What Matters—Not Everything
No one wants to read a 20-page transcript. Your job is to make it easy for others to act on what you’ve learned.
- Create a highlight reel: Pull out 3-5 clips or quotes that illustrate the main points. Add context: why does this matter for GTM?
- Share summaries: Write short, plain-English summaries of each call or theme. Bullet points beat essays every time.
- Tailor for your audience: Sales might care about objections and competitor mentions. Product cares about feature requests and pain points. Don’t dump everything on everyone.
Pro tip: Link back to the full transcript for anyone who wants details, but don’t expect many people to read it all.
Step 6: Close the Loop and Iterate
Transcripts are only useful if you actually do something with them.
- Track changes: If you update messaging, onboarding, or pricing based on call feedback, monitor if those same issues keep coming up.
- Run periodic reviews: Every month or quarter, scan for new themes. Are things getting better, or just changing?
- Don’t create busywork: If a process isn’t actually helping you make better decisions, scrap it or simplify.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
What works:
- Using transcripts to pull real customer language into your GTM materials
- Tagging and highlighting to spot patterns (but don’t go overboard)
- Sharing concise, actionable takeaways with your team
What doesn’t:
- Hoping Otter’s AI will magically summarize what matters (it can’t read your mind)
- Spending hours fixing every typo or filler word
- Transcribing every single call “just in case”—focus on the ones that drive decisions
What to ignore:
- Fancy sentiment analysis or automatic “insights” unless you have time to check their accuracy
- Over-complicated folder/tag hierarchies
- The urge to make everything perfect before you share—speed beats polish here
Keep It Simple (and Actually Use the Insights)
Don’t let your customer calls become another graveyard of forgotten files. Set up a simple process: record, transcribe, highlight, and share just what matters. Start small, iterate, and focus on helping your team make better decisions—not creating more paperwork. If you stick to that, Otter can be a real asset, not just another tool collecting dust.