What should a meeting summary include?

A useful meeting summary should include: the main topics discussed, decisions made, committed next steps with owners and deadlines, any outstanding questions, and relevant context updates for the CRM deal record.

How long does it take to set up meeting summaries?

Basic setup connecting your meeting platform and CRM takes 30-60 minutes. Full configuration with custom field mapping, routing rules, and team rollout typically takes 1-2 weeks to dial in.

Do automated meeting summaries replace manual note-taking?

Yes, for structured post-call data. Automated summaries capture action items, next steps, and CRM updates without rep effort. Reps may still take personal notes during calls, but post-call CRM logging happens automatically.

Can meeting summaries be sent automatically to Customer Success?

Yes. AI Revenue Automation platforms like AskElephant can route meeting summaries and deal context directly to CS when a deal closes, creating a complete handoff package without any manual assembly.

How to Set Up Meeting Summaries

How do you set up automated meeting summaries?

To set up automated meeting summaries, connect your meeting platform to an AI automation tool, define your summary template, map fields to your CRM, and configure where completed summaries are routed. Setup takes 30-60 minutes for the basics and 1-2 weeks for full team rollout. Once configured, every call produces a structured summary with zero rep effort.

What do you need before getting started?

Before you begin, make sure you have admin access to both your meeting platform and your CRM. You'll need permission to install integrations and configure field mappings on both sides.

Requirements:

Admin or integration access to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet
Admin access to HubSpot or Salesforce
An AI automation platform that connects to both (AskElephant, for example)

Optional but helpful:

Defined deal fields for next steps, decision-makers, and close dates
An existing sales process with stage criteria already mapped in your CRM

Step 1: How do you connect your meeting platform?

Start by connecting Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet to your AI automation platform through a native integration or OAuth connection. This is the data source that feeds every summary.

Most platforms offer one-click OAuth connections for major meeting tools. In AskElephant, you navigate to Integrations and authorize the meeting platform under your account settings. The integration begins capturing calls immediately after authorization—no additional configuration needed for the meeting side.

If your organization uses both Zoom and Teams across different teams, connect both. Most AI automation platforms support multiple meeting sources in a single workspace.

Pro tip: Verify the integration is capturing test meetings before proceeding to field configuration. A broken connection is the most common cause of missing summaries.

Step 2: How do you define your summary template?

Configure which fields appear in every summary—at minimum: key topics discussed, decisions made, committed next steps with owners, open questions, and any CRM field updates the call surfaced. The goal is a structured output that another person could act on without listening to the recording.

Keep the template focused. More fields aren't always better. A summary with 20 fields that reps need to clean up is slower than one with 6 fields that arrive ready to use.

Effective templates for sales calls typically include:

Meeting context: deal name, date, attendees
Key outcomes: what was decided, what changed in the deal
Next steps: who owns each action, by when
Risks or blockers: anything that could stall the deal
CRM updates: which fields need to change based on this call

For post-sale calls, add a field for product feedback and a flag for expansion opportunities.

Step 3: How do you map summary fields to your CRM?

Connect each summary field to the corresponding deal or contact field in HubSpot or Salesforce so data writes automatically after every call. This is where the manual CRM update gets eliminated entirely.

In HubSpot, deal properties map directly to summary output fields. "Next step text" in the summary maps to the "Next step" deal property. "Committed close date" maps to "Close date." The mapping is one-time configuration—after setup, every call updates those fields automatically.

In Salesforce, the same pattern applies with Opportunity fields and Activity records. Standard fields map easily. Custom fields may require a brief configuration step with your Salesforce admin.

Check how to automate CRM updates from sales calls for a deeper walkthrough of the field-mapping process for HubSpot and Salesforce.

Step 4: How do you test the setup with a live call?

Run a test meeting with a colleague or internal standup, then verify the summary captures all configured fields and that the data lands in the correct CRM records. Don't skip this step—catching misconfigurations before live customer calls saves significant cleanup time.

What to check after your test call:

Did the summary generate automatically after the call ended?
Are all template fields populated with reasonable data?
Did the CRM deal record update with the correct field values?
Did routing notifications fire as configured?

Most teams find one or two field mappings need adjustment after the first test. Fix those and run a second test before rolling out to the full team.

Step 5: How do you configure routing and notifications?

Set up where completed summaries are sent and who gets notified—the rep, their manager, the CRM deal timeline, or the CS handoff when a deal closes. Routing is what makes summaries operationally useful instead of just archival.

Common routing configurations:

Rep notification: Summary sent via Slack or email to the rep immediately after the call
Manager visibility: Summaries from all team calls visible in a shared dashboard
CRM timeline: Every summary posted to the relevant deal or contact record in HubSpot or Salesforce
CS handoff: When deal stage changes to Closed-Won, the full call history and deal context routes to the assigned CSM as a structured handoff package

For automated Salesforce updates from calls, routing to Salesforce activity records keeps your opportunity history complete without any rep input.

What mistakes should you avoid when setting up meeting summaries?

The most common mistake is mapping too many fields before testing—complex configurations are harder to debug when something goes wrong.

Skipping the test call: Going live without a test means you discover mapping errors on real customer calls.
Over-templating from day one: Start with 5-6 high-value fields and add more after the team is comfortable with the workflow.
Not defining ownership for next steps: If the summary captures a next step without an owner, it creates ambiguity. Configure the template to always require an owner field.
Ignoring existing CRM data: If your team has been logging notes manually, run an audit before enabling auto-updates to understand what will change.

How does AskElephant help with meeting summaries?

AskElephant is an AI Revenue Automation Platform that generates structured meeting summaries and writes them directly to your CRM after every call—with no rep action required. Unlike tools that only produce transcript text, AskElephant extracts structured data: next steps, deal stage changes, follow-up tasks, and handoff packages.

With a 5.0 rating on the HubSpot Marketplace and 200+ installs, AskElephant connects to Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet. Summaries route to HubSpot or Salesforce deal records within minutes of a call ending.

Teams like Rebuy and Kixie use AskElephant to keep their CRM data clean automatically after every customer interaction. The sales-to-CS handoff is generated from the full meeting history automatically when a deal closes.

AskElephant pricing: Starting at $99/month. No seat minimums. Enterprise solutions available. View pricing.

If meeting summaries are a manual bottleneck for your team, request a demo here to see the full workflow.

Frequently asked questions?

Here are the questions sales and RevOps teams ask most about automated meeting summaries.

How accurate are AI-generated meeting summaries?

Accuracy depends on call audio quality and how well the summary template is configured. Most teams report that 85-95% of AI-generated summaries require no edits when the template is well-defined. Audio quality and speaker clarity are the primary variables.

Can meeting summaries work for both internal and external calls?

Yes, though most teams configure separate templates for internal versus external calls. External (customer) call summaries focus on deal context and next steps. Internal (team) call summaries can capture decisions and action items for project tracking.

Do reps need to do anything for summaries to generate?

No. Once configured, summaries generate automatically after every call that occurs through the connected meeting platform. Reps don't need to trigger anything or review the summary unless they choose to. According to HubSpot Research, top-performing reps are more likely to review post-call data—but the data arrives regardless.

What happens to summary data if a deal is closed or deleted in the CRM?

Summary data already written to the CRM remains in the deal history. Future summaries for that deal stop being created once the deal is inactive, but historical records stay intact.

Can summaries trigger downstream workflows?

Yes. Most AI automation platforms can trigger workflows from summary events. Examples: when a summary includes a "budget approved" signal, trigger a proposal-stage workflow; when "churn risk" is flagged in a summary, trigger a churn alert to the CSM.

What should you read next?

These guides go deeper on the automation that connects to meeting summaries.

Book a demo to see it in action