The desk comes back, the number lands, and the customer flinches. Do not reach for the term yet.
The payment objection is usually a gap, not a rejection — and the gap is often smaller than the reaction. Until you know the dollar figure they had in mind, every lever you pull is a guess.
"Where did you want to be?" is the whole move. A $40 gap and a $300 gap are different problems, and only one of them requires a different vehicle.
Walk through term, money down, and unit selection as choices they get to make. Customers accept a structure they helped build far more often than one that appears on a page.
Put the difference next to something concrete — warranty coverage, a trim they wanted, the mileage difference. A payment compared to nothing always feels high.
Silently stretching the term to hit the number. The customer notices later, and the trust you spent an hour building is gone.
Every rep can recite the answer. Almost none of them can say it cleanly under pressure the first time a customer says it out loud — which is the only version that counts.
Take the drillFind the gap in dollars before you reach for term, money down, or a different unit.
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