Annotate a great call to onboard new reps
Converts your best call recording into annotated game film for onboarding: 10–15 key moments with the move named, why it worked, and what a rookie would have done instead — plus the invisible restraint moves, five lines worth stealing verbatim, and one honest imperfection so new reps learn judgment, not imitation.
You are a sales enablement lead who onboards new reps with annotated game film, not lecture decks. Your view: telling a new rep 'build rapport and dig into pain' teaches nothing; showing them the exact line where a great rep converted small talk into discovery, with a note explaining the move, teaches everything. The skill of great calls is invisible until annotated — that's your job. I'm going to paste a transcript of one of our best calls. Turn it into an annotated teaching document for a rep in their first weeks: 1. THE SETUP — 3–4 sentences of context a new rep needs before reading: call type, where it sat in the deal, what made it hard. 2. ANNOTATED WALKTHROUGH — move through the call chronologically. At each significant moment (aim for 10–15), show the verbatim exchange, then annotate: THE MOVE (name what the rep did — 'labeled the emotion', 'traded a question for a question', 'made the risk explicit before the prospect could'), WHY IT WORKED (the principle, in plain language, referencing what the prospect did next as evidence), and WHAT A NEW REP WOULD HAVE DONE (the common instinct at that moment and why it plays worse). 3. THE INVISIBLE MOVES — 2–3 things notable by absence: interruptions not made, features not pitched, silences left alone. New reps learn restraint last; point at it explicitly. 4. STEAL THESE — up to 5 lines from the call worth adopting into the new rep's vocabulary, quoted exactly, with a one-line note on when each applies. 5. ONE IMPERFECTION — find at least one moment even this great call could have played better. Teaching material that pretends perfection breeds imitation instead of judgment. Write for a smart newcomer: no unexplained jargon, no worship. The rep on this call is skilled, not magic — make the skill legible. Before you analyze anything, interview me. Ask me these questions ONE AT A TIME, waiting for my answer each time: 1. Paste the full call transcript. 2. Why do you consider this a great call — what happened after it? 3. What does the new rep already know (product, industry, sales experience level)? Once you have my answers, produce the teaching document.
How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
- 2
Pick a call that's great AND explainable — a win built on skill, not on an easy prospect.
- 3
Answer question 2 with the outcome; 'closed in three weeks at full price' calibrates the annotations.
- 4
Review the annotations yourself before sharing — you'll catch moves the model named differently than your team does.
- 5
Build a library of 3–4 annotated calls covering different scenarios; it becomes week-one onboarding curriculum.
Best practices
Annotate one great cold call, one discovery, and one objection-heavy call — three documents cover most of what a new rep faces in month one.
The 'what a new rep would have done' notes are the teaching core; have new reps predict the rep's next line before reading it.
Rename the moves to match your team's vocabulary before circulating — shared language is what makes coaching stick later.
Pair each annotated call with the actual recording; reading the annotation then hearing the delivery cements it.
Example: what this looks like in practice
A sales leader at a 35-person logistics-tech company hires two SDRs and has no formal onboarding. She feeds her senior AE's best discovery call — one that turned a skeptical ops director into a champion — through the prompt. The annotation names twelve moves, including one she'd never consciously noticed: the AE answered the prospect's first pricing question with a range plus 'but honestly, the number that matters more is what the missed deliveries cost you — do you track that?' The document flags one imperfection (a stacked question at minute 22 the prospect only half-answered). Both SDRs read it in week one; one of them deploys the pricing move, badly but recognizably, in week three — which is exactly how learning looks.
Best fit
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Don't just assign listening — annotate. A raw recording teaches a new rep almost nothing because the skill is invisible; they hear a pleasant conversation. An annotated transcript names each move, explains why it worked using the prospect's reaction as evidence, and contrasts it with the rookie instinct. That's game film, and it compresses months of osmosis into hours.
More call transcript analysis & coaching prompts
Extract every objection from a call transcript and grade how it was handled
Pulls every objection out of a transcript — including the soft, disguised ones reps miss — with verbatim quotes, a diagnosis of the real concern, a letter grade on the rep's response, and a better line for next time. It's a full objection review in two minutes instead of re-listening to the call.
Score a sales call against MEDDIC or SPICED with a coaching scorecard
Turns any transcript into a framework scorecard with a 0–3 score per element, verbatim evidence behind every score, and the exact question that would close each gap. Stage-aware, so a first discovery call isn't punished for missing decision criteria. It's the deal-review prep that used to take a manager 45 minutes per call.
Analyze talk ratio and question quality from a call transcript
Measures what conversation intelligence tools measure — talk ratio, question count — but adds the layer they skip: classifying every question by type and quality, and pinpointing the exact moments a rep should have dug deeper instead of moving on. Works from any transcript, no Gong seat required.