From Foxnews.com’s How to Deal With the Salary-Expectations Question:
Don Sutaria, president and founder of CareerQuest, a staffing and training firm, advises job seekers to avoid offering a solid figure. “Don’t answer the question. Say, ‘I’ll expect the fair market value. Make me an offer and we can discuss it.’ Or, ‘Maybe you can tell me what your range is?'”
Sutaria adds that the best approach is to arm yourself with information. “It’s very easy to find now, based on the job title and industry, what your range is.”
This is a pet peeve of mine. I don’t think candidates get anywhere by being coy about their salary expectations. Candidates should know what the going range is for the position and it is wise for the hiring company to include compensation range in their ad.
We deal with salespeople so we have a bit of a myopic view, but the salary question is really a qualifying question. We look for salespeople who can qualify money, i.e. compensation, effectively. I would expect a strong salesperson to have qualified the compensation before going this far into the hiring process.
As a hiring company, it is wise to put the information out there. Watch how the salesperson handles it. See if they attempt to secure more compensation (nothing wrong with that approach). You should not bring in candidates without having a basic outline of their compensation expectations.
Basically, don’t let the money topic turn into a cat-and-mouse game between the candidate and the hiring manager.