“How much or what does the position pay?” is one of the second most voiced objections that you as a recruiter have to learn to address with candidates. Most would suggest to never disclose a compensation range early on, because no candidate ever views himself or herself as average.  Therefore, when you throw out a salary range, the candidate will only hear the top end of the spectrum.  You risk either the candidate eventually turning down the offer because it wasn’t at the highest end of the range, or you risk a candidate currently being in the top end of the range and therefore not interested in pursuing a conversation with your client.  You also risk mistaking this question for an indication of interest, when it may not be at all!

No matter the situation, this question needs to be addressed effectively.  You certainly want to avoid working with a candidate whose primary motivation is tied directly to compensation, as you would be setting yourself up for a difficult process.  If a candidate hears the compensation amount early in your conversation without having learned the scope of the position, the corporate culture, leadership team, and how this role will benefit their career, then they are most likely to immediately  respond that they are not interested (because the dollars are the same or lower than their current income) or that they are interested (because the number you just gave them was either more or vastly more than their current income). In either of these situations, how could you know why they said yes or no based on the dollars when you’ve not even started the process of discussing the candidate’s current and past compensation structures?

With these possible responses for “What does the position pay”, remember to always close with an open-ended question that redirects the topics to those factors you just mentioned – what is important to that candidate when considering a move, what they would be looking for that they don’t currently have the chance to do, and so on – all of which we will expand the conversation to hot buttons beyond that of compensation.