The Objection Handling Reboot — 60-Min Training

Direct Answer

This is a runnable 60-minute live sales training titled "The Objection Handling Reboot," built for first-line sales managers leading teams of 4 to 12 AEs and SDRs in B2B SaaS at $25K to $500K ACV. The central teach is the LAARC framework — Listen, Acknowledge, Assess, Respond, Confirm — originally codified by Robert Spector in the consultative selling literature and battle-tested across modern sales orgs.

The session walks reps through all five steps end-to-end, applies LAARC to the five objections every rep hears every week (price/budget, timing/not now, competitor/already have it, no authority, no need), then puts everyone through verbatim live-fire roleplay. Drop this on the team calendar for tomorrow morning, hand the manager script to the leader running the room, and you walk out with a team that can hold the line on the next 50 first calls without flinching, defaulting to a discount, or letting a "send me some info" kill a deal.

Section 1 — Frame and Cold Open (0:00 to 5:00, 5 min)

Goal: Wake the team up, name the problem, lock in the framework.

Manager says (verbatim, 90 seconds):

"Pull up a chair. Phones face down. Today we are running the Objection Handling Reboot.

Here is why. I pulled Gong/Chorus tags for the last 30 days and we are losing 41 percent of stage-2 deals on five objections — price, timing, incumbent vendor, no authority, no need. Every one of those is winnable.

Today we are not learning anything new. We are unlearning the three things that kill us — answering before we acknowledge, dropping price as a reflex, and ending objections without confirming the prospect actually agrees with our response. By 11 a.m.

You will have one framework — LAARC — and live-fire reps on all five objections. The reps go on camera. The room scores.

We ship better tomorrow."

Whiteboard or slide (manager draws while talking):

• L — Listen. Full sentence. No interrupting. Pen down.
• A — Acknowledge. Validate the human, not the position.
• A — Assess. One diagnostic question. Always.
• R — Respond. With proof, not opinion.
• C — Confirm. "Does that fully address it, or is there more here?"

Rep takeaway card (printed, one per seat): Five letters. Five objections. One page. Laminated if you are fancy.

Common mistake to call out cold: Most reps collapse LAARC into a 6-second "AR" — acknowledge and respond. They skip the listen and the assess. That is where deals die.

Section 2 — Teach the Framework Step by Step (5:00 to 20:00, 15 min)

Goal: Walk all five letters with verbatim language and one worked example.

2.1 Listen (2 min)

Manager says:

"Listen means the prospect finishes their sentence, you wait one full beat — count to two in your head — and then you speak. If you are typing while they talk, you are not listening. Close the laptop screen halfway.

Chris Voss calls this 'late-night FM DJ voice' — slow, low, present. Your goal in the listen step is to make the prospect feel like the most important person on the call for the next 90 seconds."

• Rep behavior to drill: Pen down. Camera on. Mouth closed.
• The 2-second rule: Wait two seconds after they stop before you speak. Counts as the entire L step.

2.2 Acknowledge (3 min)

Manager says:

"Acknowledge is not agreeing. It is validating that the concern is reasonable. The Sandler reversal — David Sandler's old move — is a cousin here. You acknowledge, then you turn the question back to expose the real concern."

Verbatim acknowledgment phrases (rep-says, write all five on the board):

• "That makes sense."
• "A lot of teams in your seat say the same thing."
• "I would be asking the same question."
• "Fair point — let me make sure I actually understand it before I respond."
• "You are not wrong to push on that."

Banned phrases (Anthony Iannarino's "anti-objection" list):

• "I hear you, but..." — the "but" erases the acknowledgment.
• "I understand, however..." — same problem.
• "Great question!" — sycophantic, transparent, weak.

2.3 Assess (3 min)

Manager says:

"Assess is the one step nobody does. It is one diagnostic question. Mahan Khalsa's 'Helping Clients Succeed' methodology calls this mutual exploration — you do not pitch until you have actually understood the concern. The question should narrow the objection from a category to a specific."

Verbatim assess questions per objection (write on board):

• Price: "When you say it is expensive — is that expensive relative to your budget, or expensive relative to the ROI you are expecting?"
• Timing: "When you say not now — is it not now this quarter, or not now this fiscal year? Different answer for each."
• Competitor: "Help me understand — is it that the incumbent is working, or that switching feels risky? Two different problems."
• No authority: "Who else weighs in on a decision like this — and what would they need to see for it to be a yes from them?"
• No need: "Walk me through how you handle [pain] today — what does that process actually look like end to end?"

2.4 Respond (4 min)

Manager says:

"Now you respond — with proof, not opinion. Cite a customer. Cite a number. Cite a case study. Never respond with 'in my experience' or 'I think.' Nick Cegelski and Armand Farrokh at 30 Minutes to President's Club call this the 'proof point with a name' rule — every response gets a logo, a number, and a quote."

Response structure (3 beats):

1. "Here is what we see with companies like yours..." (logo + similar profile)
2. "What [Company X] found was..." (specific number)
3. "That said, your situation is different in [specific way] — so let me ask..." (bridge to confirm)

2.5 Confirm (3 min)

Manager says:

"Confirm is the step that separates juniors from closers. You ask, out loud, whether your response actually landed. If the prospect says 'sort of' — you are not done. Go back to assess."

Verbatim confirm phrases (rep-says):

• "Does that fully address it, or is there more here?"
• "Where does that leave you?"
• "On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did that answer your concern?" (Chris Voss labeling-adjacent — gives you a number to work with)
• "What would need to be true for that to be a non-issue?"

Section 3 — Walk LAARC Through the Five Objections (20:00 to 30:00, 10 min)

Goal: Show the framework applied to all five objections with full verbatim scripts. Manager runs the front. Reps follow on their card.

Objection 1 — Price/Budget. Prospect-says: "Honestly, that is way more than we budgeted."

• L: Pen down. Two seconds.
• A: "That makes sense — most teams we work with had budgeted for a point solution, not a platform."
• A: "When you say more than budgeted — is that more than the line item, or more than what you can defend to finance?"
• R: "What we see with companies your size — Acme rolled us out last year, they had the same gap, and they pulled the budget from three retired tools by month four. Net spend dropped 12 percent."
• C: "Does that fully address the budget concern, or is there more here?"

Objection 2 — Timing/Not Now. Prospect-says: "We are just slammed this quarter. Maybe Q3."

• A: "Totally fair — slammed quarters are the worst time to bolt on anything new."
• A: "Is the slam this quarter, or is the broader project not a priority until next fiscal?"
• R: "What CFOs in your seat usually find — and Beta Corp is the canonical example — is that the projects that wait a quarter cost roughly 1.4x what they would have cost if they shipped on the original timeline, because the pain compounds."
• C: "Where does that leave you on timing?"

Objection 3 — Competitor/Already Have It. Prospect-says: "We already use [Incumbent]."

• A: "Good — that means you have already invested in solving this problem, which is a great sign."
• A: "Is [Incumbent] working, or is it just installed?"
• R: "We see a lot of teams who stayed on [Incumbent] for 18 months past the point it stopped scaling. Gamma migrated last spring — 6-week migration, 31 percent lift in pipeline velocity."
• C: "On a scale of 1 to 10, how well is [Incumbent] working today?"

Objection 4 — No Authority. Prospect-says: "I would need to loop in my VP."

• A: "Smart — a call like this should never be a unilateral decision."
• A: "Who else weighs in, and what does your VP usually need to see to greenlight a tool like this?"
• R: "What works best — and Delta's VP of RevOps did exactly this — is a 20-min joint readout with both of you, where we walk the VP through the three numbers that matter. I will prep the deck."
• C: "Does that feel like the right next step?"

Objection 5 — No Need. Prospect-says: "We have a process for this already."

• A: "Fair — most teams do have some version of a process."
• A: "Walk me through it end to end — from trigger event to outcome — what does that actually look like today?"
• R: "What we usually find — Epsilon is a great example — is that the process exists in three different tools and one spreadsheet, and the team spends 6 hours a week stitching it together. We collapse that to one view."
• C: "Does what I just described match your reality, or is yours genuinely tighter than that?"

Section 4 — Live-Fire Roleplay Round 1 (30:00 to 40:00, 10 min)

Goal: Five reps go on camera. One objection each. Whole room scores.

Manager says:

"Here is how this works. I pull five names from a hat. Each rep gets one objection. You run LAARC in front of the room — full five letters, no skipping. The rest of the room scores you on a 10-point rubric — 2 points per letter. You get 90 seconds. We debrief in 30. Pens out."

Scoring rubric (manager reads aloud, then writes on board):

• L (Listen) — 0/1/2: Did they wait the full 2 seconds. No interrupt. Pen down.
• A (Acknowledge) — 0/1/2: Did they validate without using "but" or "however."
• A (Assess) — 0/1/2: Did they ask exactly one diagnostic question and wait for the answer.
• R (Respond) — 0/1/2: Did they cite a named customer and a specific number.
• C (Confirm) — 0/1/2: Did they explicitly ask whether the response landed.

Manager debrief patter (verbatim, after each rep):

"Score it. Three things that worked. One thing to ship by tomorrow. Next."

Retry rule: If a rep scores 7 or below, they immediately re-run the same objection. No shame. The point is reps in seats, not feelings.

Section 5 — Live-Fire Round 2 plus Hard-Mode Variants (40:00 to 55:00, 15 min)

Goal: Push the reps into the variants — the objections-behind-the-objection, stacked objections, and the silent room.

Manager says:

"Round 2 — hard mode. I am going to throw three variants at you. The stacked objection — two at once. The silent — they raise the concern and then go quiet. And the false objection — what they said is not what they meant. Same LAARC. Three new reps."

Variant 1 — Stacked. Prospect-says: "It is expensive and we already have a tool."

• Coach the rep: "Pick one to address first. Acknowledge both. Assess the bigger one. Do not try to respond to both in one breath — you will sound defensive."
• Verbatim rep response: "Both of those make sense — let me take the incumbent question first because it usually shapes the budget answer. Is [Incumbent] working, or just installed?"

Variant 2 — Silent objection. Prospect-says: "...I don't know. I am just not sure." (then nothing)

• Coach the rep: "Do not fill the silence. Count to four. Then label — Chris Voss style — what you are hearing."
• Verbatim rep response (after 4 seconds of silence): "It sounds like there is something specific that is making you hesitate that you haven't put words to yet. What is it?"

Variant 3 — False objection. Prospect-says: "Send me some info." (but the real concern is they don't trust the rep yet)

• Coach the rep: "Sending info kills the deal. Turn it into a question."
• Verbatim rep response: "Happy to — what specifically would you want in the doc that would actually help you make a decision? If I just send the deck, I am wasting both our time."

Manager checkpoint at 50:00 (5 min remaining in section):

"Pause. Around the room — one thing you are going to change on your next live call. Ten words or fewer. Go."

Each rep names one specific change (e.g., "stop saying 'but' after acknowledge"; "ask the assess question instead of pitching"; "count two seconds before responding"). Manager writes them on the board. This is the commitment device.

Hard-mode bonus drill (if time): Manager picks two reps. Reverse roles. Manager plays a difficult prospect. Rep runs LAARC under pressure. Room scores. 90 seconds.

Section 6 — Lock-In, Commitments, Close (55:00 to 60:00, 5 min)

Goal: Convert the training into an artifact reps will use Monday morning.

Manager says (verbatim, 60 seconds):

"Three things before we wrap. One — the LAARC card stays taped to your monitor for the next 30 days. I am going to check.

Two — I am going to score every call you run this week on the LAARC rubric. Top score on Friday buys lunch. Three — at next Monday's pipeline review, every stage-2 deal gets reviewed through the LAARC lens.

If you defaulted to discount, if you skipped assess, if you never confirmed — we are going to name it. This is not a punishment. This is the system."

Three commitments per rep (write on board, each rep states one of each):

• One verbatim phrase they will use on the next call (e.g., "When you say expensive, do you mean relative to budget or relative to ROI?")
• One bad habit they will retire (e.g., "I will stop saying 'I hear you but'")
• One named customer/proof point they will memorize cold by Friday

Artifacts to ship by EOD:

• Slack the LAARC 1-pager to the team channel.
• Pin the verbatim objection scripts in the AE wiki.
• Add a "LAARC score" field to the Gong/Chorus call-scoring template.
• Schedule a 15-min follow-up on Friday for quick wins and re-reps.

Manager closes:

"We are not going to be the team that loses 41 percent of stage-2 deals on five predictable objections anymore. By the end of next month I want that number under 25. Go run a great day."

FAQ

Q: My team hates roleplay — how do I get them on camera without revolt? A: Start with the manager going first. You run a LAARC rep on yourself in front of the team. You will probably blow at least one letter.

Own it publicly. The room relaxes when the leader takes the first arrow. Then pull reps by name, not volunteer.

Volunteering is the worst recruiting mechanism for roleplay.

Q: We are remote — does this work over Zoom? A: Yes, with two changes. Mandate cameras on for the full hour — no exceptions for "I am eating." Use a shared Google Sheet for live scoring so reps can see scores roll in real time. Breakout rooms for Section 5 variants (2 reps + 1 observer per room).

Q: My reps push back — "this framework feels rigid, I want to be authentic." A: The framework is the scaffolding, not the script. Tell them: jazz musicians learn scales for 10 years before they improvise. LAARC is scales.

After 30 reps in seats with the framework, they will improvise inside it. Anthony Iannarino's framing: "Structure creates freedom; flailing creates fear."

Q: How do I keep this from being a one-off training that fades in two weeks? A: Three durability moves. (1) Add the LAARC score to your weekly call-scoring template so reps see it on every Gong/Chorus review. (2) Run a 15-min "objection of the week" on Mondays — pick one objection, one rep runs it live, room scores.

(3) Tie it to a SPIFF — $250 to the rep with the highest LAARC composite score at end of quarter.

Q: Does this work for SDRs/BDRs on cold-call objections, or just AEs in demo? A: Both, with one tweak for SDRs. SDR objections are usually faster and more reflexive — "not interested," "send me an email," "we are all set." Compress LAARC to 3 letters for cold calls — Acknowledge, Assess, Confirm.

Skip the formal Respond step on a 4-minute call. Mahan Khalsa's mutual exploration model scales down cleanly to this.

Q: What if my rep gets a brand new objection we have never trained on? A: The whole point of LAARC is that the framework works regardless of which objection lands. They Listen, Acknowledge, Assess (which becomes discovery), and Confirm whether their response landed. The Respond becomes "Let me think about that — can I come back to you tomorrow with the right answer?" That is a feature, not a bug.

Reps who can't answer everything but can hold the line with grace win more deals than reps who fake-answer everything.

Sources

1. Spector, Robert. *Lessons from the Nordstrom Way: How Companies are Emulating the #1 Customer Service Company.* John Wiley & Sons. (LAARC framework foundations in customer-centric service and sales.)
2. Sandler, David H. *You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar: Sandler Selling System.* Sandler Systems. (The Sandler reversal and "negative reverse selling.")
3. Khalsa, Mahan, and Randy Illig. *Let's Get Real or Let's Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship.* Portfolio/Penguin. (Mutual exploration / Helping Clients Succeed methodology.)
4. Voss, Chris, and Tahl Raz. *Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It.* HarperBusiness. (Labeling, mirroring, late-night FM DJ voice, and the "that's right" close.)
5. Iannarino, Anthony. *The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the 10 Commitments That Drive Sales.* Portfolio. (Commitment-based selling and anti-objection language.)
6. Cegelski, Nick, and Armand Farrokh. *30 Minutes to President's Club: Sales Tactics You Won't Find Anywhere Else.* HarperCollins Leadership. (Proof-point-with-a-name and the modern objection playbook.)
7. Dixon, Matthew, and Brent Adamson. *The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation.* Portfolio. (Teaching, tailoring, and taking control of objections rather than capitulating.)
8. Rackham, Neil. *SPIN Selling.* McGraw-Hill. (Situation/Problem/Implication/Need-Payoff diagnostic questioning that underpins the Assess step.)