Growth Metrics

Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)

The realistic share of SAM you can capture in the near term given competition, sales capacity, and execution capability.

SOM is the most grounded of the three market sizing tiers. It accounts for the fact that you will not win every deal in your SAM — competitors exist, sales teams have limits, and the market takes time to develop. SOM is the basis for near-term revenue projections and should be defensible with specific assumptions: win rate, sales velocity, average deal size, and sales capacity. A typical approach is to estimate the number of accounts you can actively pursue, multiply by your expected win rate, and then by ACV. SOM is the market size number investors care most about when evaluating a pitch, because TAM and SAM exist in a world without friction while SOM lives in the real one.