Picture this: You're wrapping up a sales call. The prospect is interested. They've asked for a proposal. You promise to send it over by end of day. You hang up feeling good about yourself.
Then life happens. Three more calls. A "quick" meeting that turns into an hour. Seventeen Slack messages. Someone microwaved fish in the office kitchen and now there's a situation. By the time you remember that proposal? It's 6 PM tomorrow, and your prospect has gone cold.
We've all been there. The mental juggling act of remembering who said what, who needs what, and who you promised the moon to. It's exhausting. It's error-prone. And frankly, it's a terrible way to run a sales operation.
But here's the thing: HubSpot is already listening to every word of your sales calls. It's transcribing them. Analysing them. And with one clever setup, it can automatically spring into action the moment specific keywords are mentioned.
No more sticky notes. No more "I'll remember that." No more dropped balls. Just pure, beautiful automation that actually works with how you sell, not against it.
But here's the thing: there's a better way. A loophole, if you will. A delightfully simple workaround that'll have you wondering why HubSpot doesn't just plaster this trick on billboards.
How to use HubSpot's tracked terms feature to automatically trigger workflows based on what's said during your sales calls. When someone mentions "proposal," "purchase order," or "send me pricing," your CRM will automatically create tasks, send emails, update records, or whatever else you need, without you lifting a finger.
Let's get the technical bit out of the way first (don't worry, it's painless).
HubSpot's calling feature already records and transcribes your calls using AI. That's not new. What is criminally under-utilised is the tracked terms functionality that lets you tell HubSpot: "Hey, when you hear THIS word in a call transcript, I want you to DO something about it."
Think of it like setting up a very attentive assistant who listens to every call and taps you on the shoulder when something important is mentioned. Except this assistant never takes lunch breaks, never forgets, and doesn't judge you for eating crisps during client calls.
Here's the magic formula:
It's like having a photographic memory, except it's for every single sales conversation you have.
Right, let's get this party started. The setup is surprisingly straightforward, no developer required, no blood sacrifice to the CRM gods necessary.
First things first, you need to make sure HubSpot is actually transcribing your calls. This is the foundation everything else is built on.
Here's how:
That's it. Your calls are now being transcribed.
This is where you get to play puppet master. You're going to tell HubSpot exactly which words and phrases should trigger your automations.
The setup:
Pro tip: Start with 5-10 high-value terms. You can always add more later. Don't go overboard and track every word under the sun, that's how you end up with automation fatigue.
Now for the fun part, creating the workflow that actually does something when those keywords are detected.
Creating the workflow:
Setting up the trigger:
This is where you decide what your HubSpot does when it hears those magic words. The possibilities are genuinely endless, but let's start with the most common (and most useful) action: creating a task.
Example: Auto-create a proposal task
Boom. 💥 The moment "proposal" is mentioned on a call, a task appears in someone's queue. No manual entry. No forgetting. Just pure, automated follow-up.
Creating tasks is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you've got the basics down, you can get really creative with what happens when tracked terms are detected. Here's your automation playground:
Creating tasks is just the tip of the iceberg. Once you've got the basics down, you can get really creative.
Tracked term: "proposal," "quote," "send pricing"
Automation:
Result: Zero proposals fall through the cracks. Your close rate improves because you're actually following through on commitments.
Tracked terms: Competitor names, "currently using," "comparing"
Automation:
Result: You build a database of competitive intelligence without anyone having to manually log it. Plus, reps get immediate support when facing competition.
Tracked terms: "case study," "white paper," "webinar," "demo"
Automation:
Result: Prospects get what they asked for immediately, not three days later when someone remembers. Marketing gets visibility into what content is actually being requested.
Tracked terms: "urgent," "issue," "problem," "not working," "cancel"
Automation:
Result: Problems get addressed before they become cancellations. Your retention rate improves because you're catching issues early.
Look, we could all use more hours in the day. But beyond just saving time, tracked terms fundamentally change how your CRM works for you instead of you working for it.
It's the difference between hoping you remember to follow up and knowing it's handled. Between manually logging every commitment and having your system do it automatically. Between looking disorganised and looking like you've got your act together.
If this hack made you realize there's probably a dozen other HubSpot features you're not using to their full potential, you're not alone.
We help businesses squeeze every drop of value out of their HubSpot investment, from workflow optimisation to full HubSpot implementations - Get Help With Your HubSpot.
Found this useful? Share it with your team. They'll thank you when they're not drowning in manual follow-ups anymore.