What is SOM? (Serviceable Obtainable Market Definition)

What is SOM?

SOM stands for Serviceable Obtainable Market. It is a business metric that estimates the portion of the market you can realistically capture within a specific timeframe, taking into account your current resources, competition, and sales capacity.

While your Total Addressable Market (TAM) is a theoretical maximum, your SOM is a practical target. It answers the question: "Given our budget, team size, and product maturity, how many customers can we actually win right now?"

SOM Meaning in Plain English

Corporate acronyms can be dry, so here is the pragmatic translation for sales leaders:

• TAM (Total Addressable Market): The Dream. ("If we sold to literally everyone on Earth.")

• SAM (Serviceable Available Market): The Strategy. ("The people we actually want to sell to.")

• SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): The Reality. ("The people we can close before we run out of cash.")

Think of it like fishing. The TAM is every fish in the ocean. The SAM is the school of tuna near your boat. The SOM is the number of tuna you can actually catch with the three fishing rods you brought on board.

How to Calculate SOM

The standard formula for calculating SOM is straightforward:

SOM = Last Year's Market Share × This Year's SAM

However, for startups or companies launching new products without historical data, the calculation is often bottom-up:

SOM = (Number of Sales Reps × Annual Quota) + Marketing Lead Conversion Forecast

The "Topo" Perspective: Static vs. Dynamic SOM

Traditionally, SOM is treated as a static number you put in a pitch deck to make investors nod their heads. Once the slide deck is closed, the number is often forgotten.

We believe SOM should be viewed as a dynamic target. In the age of AI, your "obtainable" market changes daily based on intent signals. If a prospect in your SAM suddenly raises funding or posts a job opening for a problem you solve, they immediately move into your SOM.

Using tools like AI agents to automate outreach allows you to expand your SOM significantly without hiring more humans. By removing the manual grunt work of prospecting, you effectively upgrade your "fishing rods" to a "net," capturing a larger slice of the market than manual math would suggest is possible.