Product marketers (PMMs) need every edge they can get to understand their audience and the voice of the customer. Companies like Gong.io and Chorus.ai ( now part of ZoomInfo) revolutionized the call recording software space - especially within the B2B sales world.

These tools changed the world of customer and market research forever. They unlocked a level of insight that was extremely difficult for product marketers to tap into. This new world allows insights to be collected and analyzed from conversations occurring with stakeholders across the entire go-to-market (GTM) team.

In the past, as a product marketer, you had to beg and battle with sales and customer success to sit in on calls, schedule one-on-one interviews with customers, or deploy focus groups that were separated from the actual sales conversation.

If you're not leveraging these tools, you're missing out on a goldmine of insights. These insights can come from prospects across the funnel or those who are not in-market but are willing to help you understand their perspectives.

Existing customers are arguably the best source of research, as they have purchased your product and are the definition of the voice of the customer.

So, let's break it down and see how PMMs can use call recordings to take their research efforts to the next level.

Why Call Recording Software is a Game-Changer

Let’s face it: getting into the minds of your customers is the key to crafting effective messaging and positioning. Traditionally, PMMs had to rely on customer interviews, surveys, or feedback forms to gather intel. While those methods work, they only give you a fraction of the whole story.

Call recordings, on the other hand, capture real-time conversations, unfiltered emotions, and authentic reactions. Every nuance—hesitation, excitement, confusion—paints a fuller picture of your customer’s needs and pain points. Plus, with the rise of AI-powered transcription tools, analyzing these calls has never been easier.

5 Ways Product Marketers Can Use Call Recordings for Customer Research

Digital transformation has evolved from a business enhancement to an essential survival strategy.

Here’s why it’s especially critical for B2B software companies today, with AI playing an increasingly central role:

1. Identifying Common Pain Points

Listen in on sales or customer support calls and you’ll quickly pick up recurring pain points. These are the frustrations that keep popping up, which means they’re worth addressing in your product messaging.

Pro tip: Don’t just listen for the problems - listen in on how customers talk about those problems. Dig into the psychology behind everything being said. This language can be gold for future messaging and positioning.

2. Understanding Customer Decision-Making Process

Customers make buying decisions in stages, and calls often reveal the exact moments when they go from “just browsing” to “take my money!” By studying these transitions, PMMs can refine their messaging to guide future buyers through the funnel faster.

Is there a particular feature or benefit that closes the deal? Call recordings can tell you that.

3. Tracking Sentiment and Emotions

Being able to evaluate more qualitative aspects of a sales call can be immensely valuable. For example, some calls start friendly and end with a frustrated tone or energy.

A customer’s excitement may build when they hear about a feature they love. These emotional signals are often more telling than the words themselves.

Product marketers can now listen in after the fact, to gauge overall sentiment around the product and its features, allowing for more emotional resonance in your go-to-market strategy.

4. Uncovering New Use Cases

Customers often use products in ways the founders didn't see coming. By reviewing call recordings, product marketers can discover new use cases that can lead to new marketing strategies and even product features (you want to share these with our pals in product management 😉).

A customer may say, “I love using your tool for X,” even though it was built for Y. Now, you have a new insight for messaging, positioning, or an emerging channel or campaign.

5. Creating Buyer Personas and ICPs That Actually Resonate

Buyer personas and ICP (ideal customer profiles) can easily get too abstract or outdated. Call recordings provide fresh, real-life examples of who your customers really are. Their challenges, industry-specific terms, and even job roles can help you fine-tune personas so they feel real - not just made up for a strategy doc or business model.

Pro tip: Use snippets of recorded customer quotes to build relatable stories in your marketing content.

How to Use These New Insights to Create Sales Assets

Here’s how you can turn those new powerful insights from your call recordings into sales assets that get results and sales teams will actually use:

1. Speak Their Language: Use the exact words customers use in calls to create relatable messaging. Whether it's for sales scripts, pitch decks, or emails, mirroring your audience’s language makes your assets more authentic and impactful.
2. Address Pain Points Head-On: Calls uncover the real frustrations and pain buyers face. Turn those pain points into key talking points in your sales materials, showing how your product solves their specific problems.
3. Highlight What Closes the Deal: If a feature or benefit consistently gets customers excited on calls, it’s a must-have in your sales assets. Whether it's a one-pager, demo script, or case study, lead with the stuff that seals the deal.
4. Create Emotional Content: Sales isn’t just about logic; emotions play a huge role. We're human after all (for now 🤖!) Use the emotional cues you pick up - like excitement or relief when they hear about a feature - to design assets that connect on a deeper level.
5. Address Objections: Hear the same objections pop up on calls? Turn them into content snippets that your sales team swap in and add to their sales asset to counter common pushbacks. Check out AssetMule's "Snippets" feature for more info on how to set these up.

Best Practices for Using Call Recordings as a Product Marketer

Here are some specific areas where AI is accelerating digital transformation for B2B software companies:

• ‍Keep it organized: If you’re digging into call recordings for research, tag or categorize calls by topic and stage in the buyer's journey (discovery, consideration, pricing discussions, feature feedback, objections, etc) to make it easier when you need to reference them later.‍
• Look for trends: While individual calls are insightful, trends across multiple calls are where the real magic happens. Is there a specific pain point cropping up again and again? Do qualified prospects and customers keep asking about a certain feature? That’s your cue to dig deeper.‍
• Get permission: Always make sure prospects and customers have consented to their calls being recorded and used for analysis. Most call recording software handles this automatically, but it’s always good to double-check. I always say "is it ok, if I record this call? I can share the recording with you after if you'd like".‍
• Collaborate and align with sales and support ASAP!: Sales and support teams are often the ones having these conversations, so loop them in! They can point you to the most insightful calls and help you interpret prospects and customer comments in context. Get their perspectives and co-create your assets within a efficient manner. If they feel involved, they are more likely to use the assets you create.‍

Call Recording Software Tools to Check Out

• Fathom: It records, transcribes, highlights, and summarizes your meetings so you can focus on the conversation. Integrates into your favorite meeting software like Zoom and Google Meet. Pricing starts with free and has paid plans of $19 per month/per user up to $39 per month/per user depending on whether you get a monthly or annual plan.
• Gong: Known for its in-depth analytics and ability to spot trends across calls. They have over 4000+ customers and are known for their iconic brand. Pricing is custom and requires speaking to sales.
• Chorus.ai (now part of ZoomInfo): Great for transcribing calls and identifying key moments in the conversation. Pricing is custom and requires speaking to sales but does offer a free trial.
• Clari: Allows you to use its call recording product for sales coaching, enablement, and analytics. Pricing is custom and requires speaking to sales.
• SalesLoft: Features a call recording product in order to capture a permanent record of customer interactions for sales reps to grow and learn from. Pricing is custom and requires speaking to sales.
• Sybill: Sybill uses AI to create deal notes, analyzes the salesperson's voice to draft follow-ups, and updates the CRM. They offer a free trial with pricing starting at $19 per month/per user all the way up to custom plans that require talking to sales.

Product marketers who dig into call recordings are like detectives, uncovering insights and looking for powerful signals. It’s one of the most efficient ways to get raw, unfiltered prospect and customer feedback within the context of a sales conversation or framed as market research.

It can make a huge difference in refining your product’s positioning, messaging, persona/ICP building, and more!

Contact us if you need help thinking about how to use call recordings to create sales assets with AssetMule (or in general 🙃). We're here to help!