# How we handle the follow-up after every sales call

The moment a call wraps, our agent writes the recap, updates the HubSpot deal and logs next steps in Linear. The recap email then waits for the rep to read and send it.

Canonical page: https://themachine.myapps.ai/use-cases/sales-call-followup

The call is over, but the work is not. Someone still has to write the recap
email, answer the questions the buyer raised, update the CRM and log whatever
the team promised. That is easily an hour, and it tends to happen at the end of
the day from fuzzy memory, if it happens at all. Plenty of deals go cold after a
perfectly good call, simply because nobody followed up in time.

We have an agent on Machine pick up the follow-up as soon as the call finishes.
It reads the transcript, writes the recap, updates the deal in HubSpot and logs
the tasks in Linear. The email it drafts is held at an approval step until the
rep has read it and sent it. This is the process we use after our own calls.

- **Team:** Machine
- **Runs on:** Each sales call, once the recording stops
- **Connected systems:** Call transcript · HubSpot · Linear
- **Mode:** Fires on a trigger · the rep sends the email

## The problem

Deals tend to slip away in the hours after a call. The rep who ran the meeting
has all the context fresh, yet every piece of the write-up is manual. Sum up
the conversation, answer what was left open, repeat the agreed next steps, log
it all in the CRM, create the tasks. Doing it properly eats an hour. Doing it
late makes it vague. Skipping it lets the deal go silent.

The usual remedies leave the hard part untouched. A CRM reminder nags you to
follow up and does none of the work. A note-taker that drops a raw transcript
into the deal still leaves the rep to write the recap, update the CRM and
create the tasks. A template email is quick, but it reads like a template and
still needs the account details filled in by hand.

## What we built

On Machine, finishing a call sets off an agent. Once the recording is done, the
transcript opens a **session**, a fresh cloud computer (a sandbox) just for
that call, with narrow access to HubSpot and Linear. The agent reads through
the transcript and drafts a recap email that answers the open questions and
lays out next steps. It updates the deal's stage, notes and contacts, and logs
the follow-up tasks. The email then sits at an approval step until the rep has
checked it and hit send.

## How it works

### Let the end of a call set things off

We connect the meeting recorder so that a finished call is what starts the
agent. When a recording wraps, its transcript opens a new **session** in a
sandbox of its own, loaded with that one call. Each call gets its own
throwaway computer, so nothing leaks from one deal to another and several calls
can be handled side by side.

### Teach the agent our recap style

Our way of writing a follow-up is kept in the agent's **skills** and
**memory**, the playbook it brings into every session. That covers what a
strong recap looks like, how we word next steps, which objections deserve a
careful reply, and the account's own background. When a rep writes a better
recap, we capture it, and the agent uses it on the very next call.

### Link HubSpot and Linear

With **connectors**, narrow links to your tools whose keys stay on our servers
so the model never sees a raw token, the agent can:

- **Read the transcript.** It goes through the entire call, including the
questions that came up and the promises that were made.
- **Update the deal in HubSpot.** Stage, notes and contacts are changed to match
what was really discussed.
- **Log the next steps in Linear.** Each concrete follow-up becomes a task with
an owner and a due date.
- **Draft the recap email.** It writes a summary, answers to the open questions
and plain next steps, all ready for the rep.

### Decide what it may do alone

On its own, the agent may read the transcript and write to the CRM and the task
tracker. The email to the customer is a different matter: it is never sent
automatically. Every recap pauses at a **human approval gate**, where the rep
reads it, tweaks it if needed, and sends it. Credentials are stored encrypted
in the **Secrets Manager** and only handed to the agents you grant them to.

### Have the follow-up waiting when you hang up

Once this is running, the rep's only job after a call is to hang up. When they
next check, the deal has been updated, the tasks are logged, and a recap email
sits ready with the summary, the answers and the next steps. They look it over
and send it. The follow-up goes out while everyone still remembers the call,
not three days later.

> **The pattern**
> Each finished call fires a **trigger** that opens a session with narrow
> **connectors** to HubSpot and Linear. Our recap style lives in its **skills**
> and **memory**. The CRM and the tasks update by themselves, while the email to
> the customer waits at an approval step for the rep.

## Guardrails

This agent reads conversations with customers and writes into the CRM, so its
reach is narrow and the outbound step belongs to a person:

- **Isolation.** Each call is handled in a sandbox of its own. The session can
  read only the transcript it was given and can reach only HubSpot and Linear.
  The updates and the draft email are all that leave it.
- **Scoped secrets.** Keys for the transcript source, HubSpot and Linear are
  stored encrypted in the Secrets Manager and only handed to the agents you
  grant them to.
- **Human approval gate.** No recap email ever goes out by itself. Each one
  waits for the rep to check and send. The agent handles the CRM and the tasks,
  and the rep owns what goes to the customer.
- **Everything is code.** The agent's setup, skills and permissions are files in
  the repo. They keep a version history, and changes go through a reviewed
  **change request** instead of a dashboard toggle.

## The outcome

- **Every call:** Recap, CRM update and tasks done by the time it wraps
- **Rep sends:** A person checks every email before it goes out
- **3 systems:** Transcript, HubSpot and Linear handled by a single agent

Follow-up now goes out while the conversation is still fresh. The deal is
current, the tasks are logged, and a recap email is ready to go. Reps spend a
minute checking rather than an hour writing, and nothing reaches a customer
until a person sends it.