TAM (Total Addressable Market): the total addressable market — all potential revenue if you captured 100% of the global market for your product. Useful for investors, not for operational prospecting.

SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market): the addressable market you can actually serve — the subset of the TAM you can reach with your current business model (geographic zone, languages, channels). This is the figure that matters for sizing your lead machine.

SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): the market actually capturable in the short term — the subset of the SAM you can realistically win in the next 12-24 months with your current resources. The basis for calculating the forecast pipeline.

Step 1: identify the total market size (sources: Gartner, Forrester, INSEE, Eurostat, sector reports). E.g. the market for sales management software in France = audit-based scopebn.

Step 2: apply your segment (size, sector, geography). E.g. SMEs 10-200 employees, services sector, France = 15% of the market = audit-based scope TAM.

Step 3: calculate the SAM by deducting what you cannot address (channels, languages, regulation). E.g. SAM = 60% of the TAM = audit-based scope.

Limit of the top-down method: a high-side approximation, often too optimistic for an SME. Useful for investor pitches, insufficient to calibrate operational prospecting.

This is the recommended method to calibrate a lead machine. It starts from the real number of companies matching your precise ICP.

Step 1: define your precise ICP (NAF sector, min/max headcount, geographic zone, presence/absence of a compatible tool). E.g. consulting firms, 10-50 employees, mainland France, management sector.

Step 2: count the companies on SIRENE/INSEE + LinkedIn + Infogreffe. E.g. 4,200 consulting firms of 10-50 employees in France.

Step 3: deduct the unreachable (no email, off-target, already clients). E.g. 70% addressable → operational SAM = 2,940 accounts.

Step 4: estimate the realistic penetration rate over 12 months (2-8% depending on competition). E.g. 5% × 2,940 = 147 potential new clients in 12 months.

Lead-Gene calculates each client's operational TAM during the ICP audit (D1-D2 of deployment). Our AI cross-references SIRENE, LinkedIn, Apollo and sector registries to count precisely the number of accounts matching your defined ICP.

AI TAM output: total number of addressable accounts, breakdown by sector and region, estimate of the possible penetration rate over 12 months, machine volume calibration (recommended contacts/day so as not to exhaust the market prematurely).

Key rule: if your bottom-up TAM is under 1,000 accounts, a lead machine exhausts the market in under 6 months at full throttle. In that case, we recommend a targeted ABM approach (every account worked) rather than a volume machine.

TAM under 1,000 accounts: an ABM approach on 100% of the market. Goal: reach each decision-maker 3 times over 6 months. Machine paced at 15-20 contacts/day.

TAM 1,000-10,000 accounts: a standard machine at 50-80 contacts/day. Full market rotation in 3-6 months. ICP renewal each quarter.

TAM above 10,000 accounts: a full-throttle machine (100-200 contacts/day). Segmentation by micro-ICP for maximum personalization. Scalable over 12-24 months without exhausting the market.

Tool: use our ROI calculator which includes a TAM estimate to calibrate your machine according to your pipeline goals.