Figure 12 Sept 2026From “What are TAM, SAM, and SOM?”

The market sizing filtration architecture

Filter global theoretical demand through structural compatibility, go-to-market channels, and deployed sales capacity.

Figure 1The market sizing filtration architecture

Filtration tier	Scope definition	Mathematical basis	Operational constraint governed
Total Addressable Market (TAM)	Global universe of theoretical demand	Total Universe $\times$ Potential ACV	Macro strategic category ceiling and venture scale
Product-Market Fit Filter	Excludes incompatible segments	Accounts meeting ICP specifications	Technical capability and feature parity
Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM)	Reachable target segments	Target Accounts $\times$ Realized ACV	Go-to-market distribution, sales channel, geography
Commercial Capacity Filter	Excludes accounts exceeding capacity	Active sales reps $\times$ Account coverage	Field bandwidth and marketing pipeline velocity
Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM)	Committed 12--36 month revenue	Active Quota Reps $\times$ Attained Quota	Annual operating plan (AOP) and quota allocation
Unit Economics Validation	Marginal cash contribution	$\text{SOM} \times \text{CMR} - \text{Sales Cost}$	Enterprise capital efficiency and margin sustainability

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Source: Author's commercial market sizing framework grounded in industrial market measurement and sales territory literature from Goodman (1972), Beswick and Cravens (1977), Darmon (2002), and Piercy et al. (1999).

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Source and evidence

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B MSB27-C1 Goodman's own distinction: market potential is a measure "of an environmental state at a point in time (present or future)", whereas "sales forecasts are measures of expectation which are conditional upon inputs of the various marketing decision variables", and "it is usually necessary to rely on proxy data for most of the things a marketer would like to measure"Goodman. (1972)
B MSB27-C2 The three stages are the paper's own: "The first step assesses the broad market potential of a country; the second step estimates the sales potential for a specific company, and the third step calculates return on investment for the company based on the resources required"Natarajarathinam & Nepal. (2012)

Grades: A, verified against the printed page of the primary source · B, primary source, text layer only · C, authoritative secondary · D, reported.

From the essay

Go-to-market strategy

What are TAM, SAM, and SOM?

TAM, SAM, and SOM establish a nested market sizing architecture that separates aggregate theoretical demand from operational go-to-market capacity.

2 Sept 2026

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APA 7

Isoglu, S. (2026). The market sizing filtration architecture [Figure]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-are-tam-sam-som-fig01/

BibTeX

@misc{isoglu-2026-what-are-tam-sam-som-fig01,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{The market sizing filtration architecture}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Figure 1, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-are-tam-sam-som-fig01/},
  note = {From the essay {What are TAM, SAM, and SOM?}}
}

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  <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-are-tam-sam-som-fig01/">
    <img src="https://isoglu.com/social/isoglu-2026-what-are-tam-sam-som-fig01.png" alt="Figure 1: The market sizing filtration architecture" width="3200" height="2400">
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  <figcaption>Figure 1: The market sizing filtration architecture. Source: Author&#39;s commercial market sizing framework grounded in industrial market measurement and sales territory literature from Goodman (1972), Beswick and Cravens (1977), Darmon (2002), and Piercy et al. (1999). <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-are-tam-sam-som-fig01/">View exhibit</a>.</figcaption>
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