The best notes from a sales call usually live in the rep’s head, or in a notebook. The CRM gets “good call, sending proposal.” A notetaker can fix that by writing a summary, the action items and a link to the recording onto the deal. But Gong, Fathom and Fireflies differ more than their marketing suggests in what lands where, and which plan you need for it. By the end of this guide you’ll have picked one and connected it. Every external call will then log a summary and next steps to the right contact and deal, and the follow-up will exist as a task.
What you need
- A CRM the tool supports. All three have documented HubSpot integrations. Fathom lists HubSpot and Salesforce, and Fireflies lists Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and others.
- CRM admin access to authorize the connection. Gong’s export settings require the tech admin role.
- The right plan. Details below. This is where most of the cost difference is.
How the three compare
| Gong | Fathom | Fireflies | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it’s built for | Sales teams buying a full revenue platform | Small teams wanting notes in the CRM | Teams wanting notes in many apps |
| Published pricing | Not public, sales quote | Team $15/user/mo annual ($19 monthly), Business $25 annual ($34 monthly), 2-user minimum | Free, Pro, Business, Enterprise tiers. Check the pricing page for current rates |
| What reaches HubSpot | Call activity with “call spotlight” (brief, highlights, outline), action items, attendees, link to call | Summaries, action items, deal insights | Summary and notes, transcript link, action items as tasks, call log |
| Writes into specific CRM fields | Not covered in the export doc I read | “CRM field sync” on Business and Enterprise only | Not in the doc I read beyond notes and tasks |
| Full transcript in CRM | No, Gong says the transcript isn’t exported | Not stated | Link only |
| Filtering which meetings sync | Activity update period setting | Not covered in what I read | Integration rules by title, host, participants or type (Business+) |
My honest read:
- Fathom is the cheapest way to get good summaries onto HubSpot or Salesforce records for a 2 to 10 person team. If you want it to fill fields such as “next step” or “competitor,” you need Business.
- Fireflies has the most control over what gets logged and when. Look at the “only log if the contact already exists” setting in particular.
- Gong makes sense if you also want coaching, deal boards and forecasting, and you have the budget for a quote-based contract. For notes in the CRM alone, it’s more tool than a small team needs.
Step by step
1. Decide what you want on the record before you connect
Write down the three things a manager should see on a deal after a call. For most teams that’s:
- A 5-to-8-line summary.
- Next steps, with an owner and a date.
- A link to the recording.
Everything else is noise in a CRM timeline. A full transcript on every contact makes records hard to read. None of these tools put the full transcript text in by default anyway.
2a. Fathom setup
In Fathom, go to Settings > Integrations, select HubSpot (or Salesforce), click Connect, and authorize with an account that can write contacts and deals. Fathom limits CRM sync to 3 users per domain on Premium, Team and Business. If more than 3 reps need it, plan for Enterprise. On Business, set up CRM field sync for one or two fields, such as Next step, rather than ten.
2b. Fireflies setup
In Fireflies, open Integrations, find HubSpot, click Connect and authenticate. Choose the mode that sends meeting data to HubSpot. Then set these:
- Send output to Contacts: on. Add Leads if you use HubSpot leads.
- Only log meeting data if contact/lead already exists in CRM: on. This one setting stops every vendor call and job interview from creating a contact.
- Create tasks from meeting action items: on.
- Also log meeting notes to company: on, if your team works by account.
- Create meeting participants as Leads: off, unless you want that.
On Business or Enterprise, add integration rules so only meetings with external participants, or with “Demo” or “Discovery” in the title, get logged. Use Apply configuration to all users who have access so reps can’t each set it up differently.
2c. Gong setup
In Gong, go to Admin center > Settings > CRM settings > Export. That needs the tech admin role. Gong exports meeting and call activity with the call spotlight (brief, highlights, outline), action items, attendees and a link back to Gong. Set the HubSpot activity update period. That’s how many months Gong keeps updating exported activities, and it also decides how far back historical calls are exported. If you don’t want two years of old calls appearing on timelines, start with a short period.
3. Turn action items into tasks someone owns
A summary on the timeline is a record. A task is a commitment. Fireflies can create tasks from action items directly. For Fathom and Gong, check what your plan creates. If it only writes notes, a short HubSpot workflow (on Professional) or a Zapier step can create a task for the deal owner, due in 2 business days, whenever a new call note arrives from the tool. Name it “Follow up: [deal name]” so it’s obvious where it came from.
4. Test with one internal and one external call
Record a 5-minute internal call, then a real external call with a contact who already exists in the CRM. Check four things:
- Did the internal call stay out of the CRM?
- Did the external call land on the contact and the deal, not just the contact?
- Is the summary readable without opening the recording?
- Did a task appear, and does the right person own it?
5. Tell people they’re being recorded
Every one of these tools records audio. Recording consent rules vary by state and country, so have your bot announce itself, and say so in the meeting invite. This is a legal question for your own counsel, not something I can settle in a guide.
Common mistakes
- Letting the notetaker create contacts. Turn on “only log if the contact exists” or the equivalent, or the CRM fills up with recruiters and vendors.
- Syncing everything into fields. Two well-chosen fields beat ten that the AI half-fills.
- Assuming the summary is right. Reps should skim it within the day and fix a wrong next step. AI summaries miss sarcasm and “maybe.”
- Choosing Gong for notes alone. If no one will use the coaching side, you’re paying for a platform to do a notetaker’s job.
- Per-user setups. If each rep connects their own account with their own settings, records come out inconsistent. Use team-wide configuration where the plan allows it.
When it’s worth getting help
If you’re on HubSpot or Salesforce and just want summaries on deals, Fathom or Fireflies can be connected in an hour with the settings above. Get help if you need summaries written into specific deal fields that drive your forecast, or if you’re on a CRM none of these support natively. Then it becomes an API or Zapier job, and the mapping needs thought. My B2B CRM page has more on that. The cost calculator helps you estimate what manual note-taking is costing in rep time.