Most recruiting firms list the cities they serve somewhere on their website. Unfortunately, there are some businesses that include specific locations on their list even if they don’t have genuine recruiting capability in those areas.
The difference between a listed market and an active one isn’t always visible at the start of an engagement, but it becomes apparent quickly once a search is underway. It can manifest through candidate submissions that don’t reflect the expected local market or searches that can’t provide high-quality leads.
Here’s a practical framework for evaluating whether a recruiting partner’s multi-market presence is real before that gap costs you a search.
How to Identify Real Market Presence
Listing a city on a website requires nothing more than adding text to a page. On the other hand, building genuine market presence in one city requires years of candidate relationships and consistent placement activity. It needs on-the-ground knowledge of what local candidates expect, what local employers look for, and how compensation differs from market to market.
In the context of multi-market hiring, real market presence looks like active candidate pipelines built through relationships rather than job postings. It looks like a recruiter who can tell you what a Senior Executive Assistant in New York is currently expecting in compensation versus what the same profile expects in Chicago, and that gap can be significant. BLS data shows workers in the New York metro area earned a mean hourly wage of $41.50 in May 2025, compared to $33.54 nationwide: a gap of roughly 24 percent.1 It looks like a placement history in the specific city and role category you’re hiring for.
5 Steps to Test a Firm’s Market Depth Before Committing
These steps go beyond the initial conversation and give you a more complete picture of whether a recruiting partner can deliver in the markets you need. This will help you be certain even before a search is formally underway.
1. Ask for a market-specific candidate example.
Request that the firm describe a recent candidate they placed in your target market. Avoid general overviews of their capabilities and ask for specific examples. What was the role, what did the search look like, and how did the placement hold? A firm with genuine local depth can answer this without preparation.
2. Request compensation benchmarks by city.
Ask the firm to provide current salary ranges for the role type you’re hiring for in your target markets. The ranges should differ meaningfully by city and reflect current market conditions rather than national averages. If the numbers feel generic or the firm cannot differentiate between markets, their local intelligence is probably limited.
3. Probe the sourcing methodology for each market.
Ask specifically how the firm finds candidates in each city. A relationship-based answer that includes referrals, existing candidate networks, and direct outreach to known professionals signals genuine local presence over time. A partner’s methodology tells you whether their reach in the market is active and established or is built in real time alongside each search. Either approach can produce results, but knowing which one you are working with helps you set realistic expectations for timeline and submission quality.
4. Evaluate consistency of processes across markets.
A firm with real multi-market capability applies the same screening standard regardless of geography. Ask how the firm conducts its candidate evaluation in each market and whether the process differs based on location. Inconsistency in processes produces inconsistency in outcomes. If the answer suggests that the home-market process is more rigorous than the process used elsewhere, that gap will show up in the quality of submissions.
Read more: 5 Signs Your Hiring Process Needs Work
5. Check the placement history, not just the client list.
A firm may have worked with clients who operate in multiple cities without having placed candidates in each of those cities themselves. Ask the firm to distinguish between clients they have supported nationally and searches they have actually run and closed in each of your target markets.
A client relationship in a city is not the same as a candidate placement. Only the latter tells you whether the firm can deliver what you need.
What to Listen for in a Recruiter’s Answers
Asking the right questions is only half of the evaluation. What matters just as much is knowing what a strong answer sounds like versus one that signals a firm is overstating its reach.
A firm with genuine market presence responds with specifics. They name role types, approximate timelines, and retention outcomes for placements in your target market. They identify who on their team will run the search and speak to that person’s direct experience in the city. They differentiate compensation ranges by market without being prompted and describe their sourcing approach in terms of relationships rather than platforms.
Meanwhile, a firm that is stretching its reach tends to respond differently. Answers become broader when the conversation moves to specific cities. Placement examples are regional rather than city-specific. Compensation ranges feel averaged rather than localized. These are not always signs of a firm operating in bad faith; they may simply be a firm whose genuine depth sits in a different market than the one you need. Either way, the pattern is worth noticing before a search begins rather than after.
Read more: How to Choose the Right Staffing Partner
Succeed in your multi-market search with North Bridge.
North Bridge operates across multiple markets, and our placement history is built on relationships, not a website listing. If you’re preparing to hire across more than one city, it’s best to partner with an experienced firm.
Let’s have a conversation about what our presence looks like in the markets relevant to your search. Reach out now even before a search opens.
Reference
- “Occupational Employment and Wages in New York-Newark-Jersey City — May 2025,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, June 5, 2026, https://www.bls.gov/regions/northeast/news-release/2026/occupationalemploymentandwages_newyork_20260605.htm
