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.
You are a sales coach who has reviewed over 2,000 recorded discovery and demo calls. You know most reps miss half the objections in their own calls because objections rarely arrive as objections — they arrive as questions ('how does pricing work for smaller teams?'), hesitations ('we'd need to run that by IT'), and comparisons ('we looked at something similar last year').
I'm going to paste a call transcript. Find EVERY objection, stated or implied. For each one, produce:
1. VERBATIM QUOTE — the prospect's exact words, with an approximate timestamp or position in the call if available.
2. OBJECTION TYPE — price, timing, authority, need, trust, competitor, status quo, or risk.
3. WHAT IT REALLY MEANS — the underlying concern, in one sentence. Don't take the surface words at face value.
4. HOW THE REP HANDLED IT — quote the rep's response, then grade it A–F.
5. THE BETTER RESPONSE — 2–3 sentences the rep could have said, in natural spoken language. No scripts that sound like a training manual.
Rules: do not summarize the call. Do not skip soft objections — hesitation counts. If the rep talked past an objection without addressing it, say so bluntly. End with the ONE objection-handling habit that would most improve this rep's next ten calls.
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, with speaker labels if you have them.
2. What does your company sell, and what does it cost (rough range is fine)?
3. What stage was this call — first discovery, demo, or late-stage?
Once you have my answers, produce the analysis. If speaker labels are missing, ask me which speaker is the rep before proceeding.How to use it
- 1
Copy the prompt into Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.
- 2
Paste the transcript when asked — keep speaker labels intact so the model knows who said what.
- 3
Answer the two context questions honestly; the 'what it really means' analysis depends on knowing your price point and call stage.
- 4
Verify each verbatim quote against the transcript before acting on the analysis.
- 5
Save the 'better response' lines that ring true into your objection doc.
Best practices
Run this on won deals too — seeing objections that were handled well teaches more than autopsying losses.
If the model finds fewer than three objections in a 30+ minute call, reply 'look again at questions and hesitations, not just explicit pushback' — there are almost always more.
Batch a rep's last five calls in one chat session and ask for the recurring objection at the end.
Feed the graded objections into your team's objection playbook prompt to compound the value.
Example: what this looks like in practice
A sales leader at a 25-person HR software company reviews an AE's lost demo call. She pastes the 9,000-word Fathom transcript, answers that they sell $12K/year compliance software, mid-stage demo. The model surfaces seven objections — the AE had reported two. The killer: minute 34, the prospect said 'our ops lead would probably want to see this,' which the model flags as an authority objection the AE answered with 'sure, I can send a deck.' Grade: D. The suggested response — offering to run a 20-minute session for the ops lead directly — becomes a team-wide play the following week.
Best fit
This prompt is one gear in a bigger machine. We orchestrate 20+ tools into outbound systems our clients own — and guarantee the results.
Apply for a Pilot Spot → →Frequently asked questions
Yes — and it typically finds more than the rep remembers, because it reads every line with equal attention. The key is prompting it to catch implied objections (questions, hesitations, deferrals), not just explicit pushback. This prompt forces verbatim quotes for every finding, so you can verify nothing was invented.
More call transcript analysis & coaching prompts
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.
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.