You can record a sales call with the record button on your phone, a recording app, a recorder device or a calling platform. Those give you an audio file that you still have to work through. Ajora joins your mobile calls automatically and has a summary with action items ready when you hang up, which you send on to your CRM. In the Netherlands you may record a call you take part in yourself. For business use you do have to tell the other person.
Why record sales calls?
Because otherwise you lose what the customer actually said. With the call on record your CRM is accurate, you know what you promised, and a colleague or manager can read along without you having to retell it.
In practice it comes down to three things in sales. They are related, but they are three different reasons to keep a record of a call.
Updating your CRM without typing
After a block of twenty calls you write up a few properly and the rest in three words. A week later nobody knows what "call back, interested" meant. With the call on record there is a full call note that you did not have to type.
Following up on what was really said
The price the customer mentioned, the name of the colleague who has to sign off, the date the budget becomes available. Those are the details a deal turns on, and the ones you remember slightly wrong.
Learning from your own calls
Reading a call back shows where you lost the customer or which question you did not ask. For a sales manager it is the only way to coach on what actually happens, instead of on how someone retells it.
How do you record a sales call on your phone?
There are five ways: the record button on your phone, a recording app, a recorder device, a calling platform with recording, or a service that joins the line. They differ in how much you have to do per call and in what you get back afterwards.
| Method | How it works | What you get back | Where it rubs in sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record button on your phone | A button on the call screen, if your handset has one. | An audio file. | On iPhone it is not available in the Netherlands. On Android it depends on brand and model, and you start it yourself for every call. |
| Recording app, such as TapeACall | You add a recording line to the call while it is in progress. | A recording, sometimes with a transcript. | One action per call, and it depends on what your carrier allows. |
| Recorder device, such as Plaud or Pocket | A device on the back of your phone. | A recording with a transcript. | You press record for every call, and you cannot call with earbuds. |
| Calling platform with recording | Your team calls through the platform’s own dialler or softphone. | A recording inside that platform. | Everyone has to change how they call. That suits an inside sales team behind a laptop, less so someone calling from their mobile on the road. |
| Ajora | Ajora joins the line: you dial out through the app, and incoming calls arrive through call forwarding. | A transcript, a summary and action items. No audio file. | You cannot listen to the call again, only read it back. |
There is more detail per handset in recording a phone call on your iPhone and on your Android. The comparisons with TapeACall and with Plaud and Pocket each have their own article. Already using a notetaker for your video meetings? What it does with a phone call is in can Granola, Otter or Fireflies record phone calls.
Do you need the recording, or the write-up?
In sales, almost always the write-up. Nobody listens back to a twenty-minute audio file, and your CRM cannot do anything with it. What you need is what was discussed, what was agreed and what the next step is.
That is why Ajora works differently from a recording app. The call is transcribed, and after that the audio is deleted. A few minutes after you hang up, a debrief is waiting in the app and in the dashboard: a summary, the action items at the top and the full transcript underneath. How the transcription works is in transcribing a phone call. The routes from a call to written notes are compared in AI note taker for phone calls.
Then Ajora is not the right choice. We keep no audio. If you need the recording itself, for example to hear tone and pace again in a training session, pick one of the other methods in the table.
How does a sales call get into your CRM?
Through an integration that sends the summary on after the call. With Ajora that is a ready-made integration for Apollo, and webhooks or the API for any other CRM.
Apollo
The summary is logged as a call note on the right contact, found by phone number. That can be one click per call or automatic. Here is how to switch it on: connect Ajora to Apollo.
HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive and the rest
There is no ready-made integration for these yet. It runs through webhooks: as soon as a debrief is ready, Ajora sends the summary, action items and decisions to your own system, for example with Zapier or Make in between. That is explained in the API and webhooks.
The integrations are part of every paid plan. They are not available during the free trial.
Can you use recorded sales calls for coaching?
Yes. With the transcript in front of you, you discuss a call based on what was literally said. That works with your manager, and also with an AI assistant that is allowed to read your own calls.
On the Teams plan you share a debrief within the team, so a manager can read along without having been on the call. There is also the connection with Claude and ChatGPT. It gives the assistant read access to your calls, after which you can ask things like:
- "Which objections did I hear most often this week?"
- "What did I promise in my call this afternoon, and draft a follow-up email for it."
- "Read my last five calls and tell me where I talked for too long."
The assistant only sees your own calls, also within a team, and it can only read. For the last question it needs the transcript, which is only shared if you switch that on yourself.
Is it legal to record a sales call?
In the Netherlands, yes. You may record a phone call you take part in yourself. Because you do it for work, the GDPR applies: you need a legal basis and you have to tell the other person that you are keeping a record of the call.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. Take your own situation to someone with legal knowledge, especially if you also call customers outside the Netherlands, where the rules can be stricter.
Dutch criminal law only prohibits recording calls you are not a participant in (Article 139c of the Dutch Criminal Code). You are a participant in your own sales call, so that prohibition does not apply. The GDPR comes in because the voice and the words of the person you speak to are personal data. That is also true when you are calling someone at a company.
You usually do not need to ask for consent, as long as you have another legal basis. For keeping a record of customer calls that is in practice often a legitimate interest or the performance of a contract (Article 6 GDPR). Informing the other person is required (Article 13 GDPR). With Ajora there is no beep or announcement, so you do that yourself. One sentence at the start is enough:
"I am having this call written out so I do not miss anything we agree on. Is that all right?"
Add a paragraph about it to your privacy statement as well, and do not keep the write-ups longer than you need them. The full explanation with all sources is in is it legal to record a phone call.
Getting started with Ajora
Create an account on the website
First create an account at debrief.ajora.io/register to start your trial: 7 days free with 60 call minutes, with no payment details. Then download the Ajora app from the App Store or Google Play and log in with the same details.
Switch on call forwarding
You do that once, with a button in the app. After that your incoming calls go through Ajora as well. The steps are in setting up call forwarding.
Call your customer from the Ajora app
You call the way you are used to, only from the Ajora app instead of your regular phone app. There is nothing to do during the call.
Read the debrief
A few minutes after you hang up, the summary with action items is ready, in the app and in the dashboard.
Individual costs €19 a month, or €15 a month on a yearly plan, with 600 call minutes a month. For a sales team there is Teams, from three users: €28 per user per month, or €22 on a yearly plan. You take out that plan yourself on the website, there is no need to call us for it. Getting in touch is only needed if you want Ajora for a whole organisation, with dedicated data storage or single sign-on: contact us.
Frequently asked questions about recording sales calls
Does the customer hear that the call is being recorded?
No, there is no beep or spoken announcement. That is exactly why you have to say it yourself: for business use, Article 13 of the GDPR requires you to inform the other person.
Does Ajora keep the recording of my sales call?
No. The audio is deleted once the call has been transcribed. You keep the transcript, the summary and the action items, stored encrypted on servers in Germany.
Does it also work when the customer calls me?
Yes. Incoming calls arrive through call forwarding to your Ajora number. You switch that on once in the app.
Can I connect Ajora to HubSpot or Salesforce?
Yes, through the API and webhooks. A ready-made integration like the one for Apollo does not exist for these systems yet.
Does my whole team have to move to a different phone system?
No. Everyone calls with the mobile they already have. The only difference is that you dial out from the Ajora app and switch on call forwarding once.
Can I try it for free first?
Yes. An individual account can try Ajora free for 7 days with 60 call minutes, with no payment details. The trial is for individual accounts. A team takes out the Teams plan directly, with a 14-day money-back guarantee after the first payment.
Sources
- Article 139c Dutch Criminal Code: intercepting or recording telecommunicationswetten.overheid.nl (Dutch)
- Article 6 GDPR: lawfulness of processingFull GDPR text, privacy-regulation.eu
- Article 13 GDPR: information to be provided when data are collectedFull GDPR text, privacy-regulation.eu
One of the three co-founders of Ajora. Jort focuses on user experience and growth.