Terms

Serviceable Obtainable Market

Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) is the portion of the market that a company can realistically capture with its products or services. It represents a practical, short-term target by taking into account factors like the competitive landscape, brand awareness, and available resources.

Importance of Serviceable Obtainable Market

SOM is crucial for developing a focused business strategy and setting realistic short-term goals. It informs financial projections and key operational decisions. This allows companies to create achievable growth plans and allocate resources more effectively.

Analyzing your SOM provides a clear view of your place within the competitive landscape. This insight helps management select strategies that better position the firm. A well-defined SOM is also vital for attracting investors by demonstrating a tangible and realistic market opportunity.

Calculating Serviceable Obtainable Market

This is how you calculate your serviceable obtainable market.

  1. Begin with your Serviceable Available Market (SAM), which is the segment of the market you can realistically serve.
  2. Analyze the competitive landscape to understand your direct and indirect competitors' market share and strengths.
  3. Evaluate your company’s capabilities, including historical performance, brand awareness, and available resources like your marketing budget.
  4. Multiply your SAM by the percentage of the market you can realistically capture to determine your SOM.

Serviceable Obtainable Market vs. Total Addressable Market

While both metrics measure market size, they serve different strategic purposes.

  • TAM: Represents the total market demand for a product, showing the maximum revenue potential. It's ideal for assessing long-term growth and overall market attractiveness, but can be unrealistic for immediate planning. Enterprises use it for major strategic decisions, while mid-market firms use it to evaluate new expansion opportunities.
  • SOM: Defines the portion of the market a company can realistically capture. It's used for setting achievable short-term goals, budgeting, and operational planning. Focusing only on SOM can limit long-term vision. Both enterprises and mid-market companies rely on it for data-driven sales strategies and resource allocation.

Examples of Serviceable Obtainable Market

Here are a few hypothetical scenarios showing how SOM is applied across different industries. These examples illustrate how companies set realistic targets based on their market conditions and internal capabilities.

  • Retail: A local soccer store with a $500,000 serviceable market aims for 50% market share, creating a $250,000 SOM.
  • Apparel: A women's clothing brand uses its past market share to project a SOM of $574.2 million for the next year.
  • Startup: A new kitchen storage company estimates engaging 10% of its serviceable market, resulting in a $400 million SOM.

Challenges in Estimating Serviceable Obtainable Market

Estimating your serviceable obtainable market is challenging due to several key factors.

  • Overestimation: Companies often make overly optimistic projections about their potential market share.
  • Data: Accessing reliable historical performance and competitor data can be difficult.
  • Dynamics: Market conditions and the competitive landscape are constantly in flux.

Frequently Asked Questions about Serviceable Obtainable Market

How often should I recalculate my SOM?

SOM should be recalculated regularly, such as quarterly or annually. This ensures your strategy remains aligned with changing market dynamics, competitive shifts, and your company's evolving capabilities, keeping your short-term goals relevant and achievable.

Can my SOM grow over time?

Yes, your SOM can grow. As your company expands its resources, improves brand recognition, and refines its products, it can realistically capture a larger percentage of the Serviceable Available Market (SAM), thereby increasing its SOM.

Is SOM only useful for startups?

No, SOM is valuable for businesses of all sizes. While crucial for startups seeking funding, established enterprises and mid-market companies use it to set realistic sales targets, allocate resources effectively, and guide short-term strategic planning.

Other terms

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Psychographics

Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.

Psychographics

Warm Email

A warm email is a message sent to a prospect with whom you have a pre-existing connection, like a mutual contact or a prior interaction.

Warm Email

Field Sales Rep

A field sales representative, or outside sales rep, travels to meet prospects in person, selling products or services directly within their territory.

Field Sales Rep

Sales Enablement Platform

A sales enablement platform centralizes content, training, and analytics to help sales teams engage buyers and effectively close deals.

Sales Enablement Platform

Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis, or opinion mining, automatically determines the emotional tone behind text—whether it's positive, negative, or neutral.

Sentiment Analysis

Personalization in Sales

Personalization in sales means tailoring outreach to a prospect's specific needs, interests, and context to make communication more relevant.

Personalization in Sales

Geo-Fencing

Geo-fencing creates a virtual boundary around a real-world location. It triggers actions on a device when it enters or exits this area.

Geo-Fencing

Price Optimization

Price optimization is the process of finding the ideal price for a product or service to maximize profitability or other business objectives.

Price Optimization

Complex Sale

A complex sale features a long sales cycle, multiple stakeholders, and a high-value transaction, demanding a strategic, consultative approach.

Complex Sale

Marketing Attribution Model

A marketing attribution model is a framework for assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that lead a customer to convert.

Marketing Attribution Model

Sales Operations

Sales Operations, or Sales Ops, streamlines sales processes, manages tools, and analyzes data to help sales teams sell more effectively.

Sales Operations

Marketing Play

A marketing play is a repeatable tactic used to achieve a specific marketing goal, like generating leads or driving engagement.

Marketing Play

Generic Keywords

Generic keywords are broad search terms that lack specific details like brand or location. They attract a wide audience with less specific intent.

Generic Keywords

CRM Data

CRM data is the information businesses use to manage customer relationships. It covers contact details, purchase history, and communication logs.

CRM Data

Signaling

Signaling is using credible actions to convey information about quality or intent to a less-informed party, effectively building trust.

Signaling

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a digital strategy where businesses send targeted emails to prospects and customers to build relationships and drive sales.

Email Marketing

Channel Partners

Channel partners are third-party firms that help market and sell a company's products or services, acting as an indirect sales force.

Channel Partners

Early Adopter

An early adopter is a user who embraces a new product or technology before the majority, helping to validate and popularize the innovation.

Early Adopter

Lead Qualification Process

The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.

Lead Qualification Process

Firmographic Data

Firmographic data is information used to classify firms. It includes attributes like industry, employee count, location, and annual revenue.

Firmographic Data

Incident Response

Incident response is an organization's systematic approach to managing and mitigating the aftermath of a security breach or cyberattack.

Incident Response

Sales Presentation

A sales presentation is a formal pitch by a salesperson to a prospective customer, showcasing a product or service to secure a sale.

Sales Presentation

Video Selling

Video selling uses personalized video messages to engage prospects, build rapport, and guide them through the sales funnel to close more deals.

Video Selling

Sales Demonstration

A sales demonstration is a presentation showing a prospect how a product or service works and how it can solve their specific problems.

Sales Demonstration

Email Cadence

An email cadence is a scheduled sequence of emails sent to prospects over a specific period to nurture leads and drive engagement.

Email Cadence

Buyer’s Remorse

Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret or anxiety that can arise after making a purchase, often questioning if it was the right decision.

Buyer’s Remorse

Remote Sales

Remote sales is selling from a distance. Reps use digital tools to connect with prospects and close deals without meeting them in person.

Remote Sales

SDK

A Software Development Kit (SDK) is a set of tools that allows developers to create applications for a specific software package or platform.

SDK

Compounded Annual Growth Rate

Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) measures the mean annual growth of an investment over a specified period of time longer than one year.

Compounded Annual Growth Rate

Sales Director

A Sales Director leads a sales team, develops strategies, and is responsible for meeting a company's revenue targets.

Sales Director

Mobile App Analytics

Mobile app analytics involves collecting and analyzing data from mobile apps to understand user behavior and optimize the app's performance.

Mobile App Analytics

Digital Rights Management

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is technology that controls access to copyrighted digital content, restricting its use, modification, and distribution.

Digital Rights Management

Net Promoter Score

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric measuring customer loyalty by asking how likely they are to recommend your company or product to others.

Net Promoter Score

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an ad model where you pay a fee each time your ad is clicked. It's a method of buying targeted visits to your website.

Pay-per-Click (PPC)

Inside Sales Rep

An inside sales rep sells products or services remotely from an office, using digital tools like phone and email to connect with customers.

Inside Sales Rep

B2B Data Erosion

Learn about B2B data erosion, including causes of B2B data decay, strategies to combat data erosion, & measuring the impact of data erosion.

B2B Data Erosion

High Availability

High availability (HA) describes a system's capacity to function continuously with minimal downtime, ensuring consistent operational performance.

High Availability

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics is a leading web analytics solution for gaining real-time insights into user activity across websites and mobile applications.

Adobe Analytics

Overcoming Objections

Overcoming objections is the process of addressing and resolving a prospect's concerns or hesitations to move a sale forward.

Overcoming Objections

Customer Acquisition Cost

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Sales Enablement Technology

Sales enablement technology refers to software and tools that equip sales teams with the resources they need to close more deals efficiently.

Sales Enablement Technology

Consultative Selling

Consultative selling is an approach where salespeople act as expert advisors, diagnosing customer needs to provide the most suitable solutions.

Consultative Selling

Persona Map

A persona map visually outlines a target customer, detailing their goals, behaviors, and pain points to help your team build genuine empathy.

Persona Map

Smarketing

Smarketing is the process of aligning your sales and marketing teams. This integration focuses on shared goals to improve lead quality and drive revenue.

Smarketing

Kanban

Kanban is a visual project management method that uses a board to visualize workflow, limit work-in-progress, and maximize team efficiency.

Kanban

Territory Management

Territory management is the process of segmenting customers into groups by geography or other factors to optimize sales efforts and resources.

Territory Management

Marketo

Marketo is a marketing automation platform used by B2B marketers to manage lead generation, nurturing, email marketing, and analytics.

Marketo

Sales Team Management

Sales team management is the process of leading, coaching, and motivating a sales team to achieve its sales goals and drive revenue growth.

Sales Team Management

GTM

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is an action plan that outlines how a company will reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage.

GTM

Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting is the process of identifying potential customers, or prospects, and initiating contact to convert them into paying customers.

Sales Prospecting

Voice Broadcasting

Voice broadcasting is an automated system that delivers a pre-recorded voice message to a large list of phone numbers simultaneously.

Voice Broadcasting

Triggered Email

A triggered email is an automated message sent to a user in response to a specific action or event, like signing up or making a purchase.

Triggered Email

Gamification

Gamification applies game mechanics like points, badges, and leaderboards to non-game activities to boost engagement and motivate users.

Gamification

Dynamic Segment

Dynamic segments are self-updating lists that group contacts based on real-time data, ensuring your outreach is always timely and relevant.

Dynamic Segment

Average Revenue per User

Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is a key performance indicator that calculates the average revenue generated from each user or subscriber.

Average Revenue per User

CI/CD

CI/CD, or Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery, automates software builds, tests, and deployments for faster, more reliable releases.

CI/CD

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) is the predictable, recurring income a business expects to receive each month from all active subscriptions.

Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

After-Sales Service

After-sales service is the support provided to customers after they've purchased a product. It includes things like warranties, training, or repairs.

After-Sales Service

Closing Ratio

Closing ratio is a key sales metric that shows the percentage of leads or proposals that result in a successful sale.

Closing Ratio

Closed Won

Closed Won is a CRM status for a sales deal that has been successfully concluded, resulting in a signed contract and a new customer.

Closed Won

Freemium Models

A freemium model offers a product's basic features for free, enticing users to upgrade to a paid version for more advanced capabilities.

Freemium Models

80/20 Rule

The 80/20 rule, or Pareto Principle, posits that 80% of results come from just 20% of the effort. It's a key concept for prioritization.

80/20 Rule

Ballpark

Learn about ballpark, including estimating with ballpark figures, understanding ballpark estimates in sales, & ballpark estimates vs. precise quotes.

Ballpark

Big Data

Learn about big data, including understanding big data characteristics, benefits of leveraging big data, & challenges in managing big data.

Big Data

Customer Engagement

Customer engagement is the ongoing, value-driven relationship a business builds with its customers to foster brand loyalty and awareness.

Customer Engagement

Application Performance Management

Application Performance Management (APM) monitors and manages an application's performance, availability, and the experience of its end-users.

Application Performance Management

DevOps

DevOps is a culture and set of practices that merges software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten development cycles.

DevOps

Git

Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes in code, allowing developers to collaborate and manage project history effectively.

Git

Sales Operations Analytics

Sales operations analytics is the practice of analyzing sales data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire sales process.

Sales Operations Analytics

B2B Marketing Channels

Learn about B2B marketing channels, including maximizing B2B channel effectiveness, & exploring digital vs. traditional channels.

B2B Marketing Channels

Batch Processing

Learn about batch processing, including benefits of batch processing, best practices for implementation, & common use cases.

Batch Processing

Sales Quota

A sales quota is a time-bound sales goal for a rep or team, measured in revenue or units sold, to be met within a specific period.

Sales Quota

Event Marketing

Event marketing is a strategy where brands engage directly with target audiences through live events like trade shows, conferences, or webinars.

Event Marketing

Enrichment

Enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to get a more complete picture of your leads.

Enrichment

Product Recommendations

Product recommendations are a marketing strategy that uses customer data to suggest relevant products, boosting sales and customer engagement.

Product Recommendations

User Experience

User Experience (UX) refers to a person's overall feelings and perceptions while interacting with a product, system, or service.

User Experience

Sales Territory

A sales territory is a specific group of customers or a geographic area that a salesperson or sales team is responsible for managing.

Sales Territory

Inside Sales Metrics

Inside sales metrics are quantifiable measures used to track the performance, activities, and effectiveness of an internal sales team.

Inside Sales Metrics

Contact Discovery

Contact discovery is the process of finding accurate contact details for potential leads, including names, emails, phone numbers, and job titles.

Contact Discovery

Upsell

Upselling is a sales tactic encouraging customers to purchase a higher-end version of a product or related add-ons to boost revenue.

Upsell

Social Proof

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation.

Social Proof

Artificial Intelligence in Sales

AI in sales uses smart technology to automate repetitive tasks, analyze customer data, and help sales reps close deals more efficiently.

Artificial Intelligence in Sales

Microservices

Microservices is an architecture where apps are built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate with each other over APIs.

Microservices

CSS

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the code that styles a website. It controls the colors, fonts, layout, and overall look of a web page.

CSS

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based model where affiliates earn a commission for promoting another company’s products or services.

Affiliate Marketing

Sales Strategy

A sales strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how a business will sell its products or services to achieve its revenue goals.

Sales Strategy

Lookalike Audiences

Lookalike audiences are groups of potential customers who share similar characteristics and behaviors with your existing, high-value customers.

Lookalike Audiences

Guided Selling

Guided selling simplifies complex sales by giving reps step-by-step instructions and data-driven recommendations to close deals faster.

Guided Selling

Data Privacy

Data privacy is an individual's right to control their personal information, including how it's collected, processed, stored, and shared.

Data Privacy

Hadoop

Hadoop is an open-source framework designed for the distributed storage and processing of extremely large data sets across clusters of computers.

Hadoop

Outbound Sales

Outbound sales is when reps proactively contact potential customers through cold calls or emails to generate leads and build a sales pipeline.

Outbound Sales

Sales Workflows

Sales workflows are a set of automated actions that streamline the sales process, helping teams engage leads consistently and close deals faster.

Sales Workflows

Account-Based Analytics

Account-Based Analytics measures engagement and impact across target accounts, not just individual leads, to guide B2B sales and marketing efforts.

Account-Based Analytics

Content Rights Management

Content Rights Management involves controlling the use and distribution of copyrighted digital media to protect intellectual property.

Content Rights Management

Competitive Advantage

A competitive advantage is a unique edge that allows a business to produce goods or services better or more cheaply than its rivals.

Competitive Advantage

Sales Forecast Accuracy

Sales forecast accuracy is a key metric that compares your predicted sales revenue against the actual sales revenue you ultimately achieve.

Sales Forecast Accuracy

Drip Campaign

A drip campaign is a series of automated messages sent to prospects or customers over time to nurture leads and drive engagement.

Drip Campaign

Load Balancing

Load balancing is the practice of distributing incoming network traffic across a group of backend servers, ensuring no single server is overworked.

Load Balancing

Interactive Voice Response

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated phone system that uses voice and keypad inputs to interact with callers and route their calls.

Interactive Voice Response

Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel.

Lead Nurturing