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You are staring at your CRM and your stomach drops.
Six hundred accounts. Maybe more. You know you are expected to reach out to all of them. Your manager wants pipeline. The pressure to show activity is constant. So you send another batch of emails, adjust your cadence, and hope something sticks.
But nothing does.
Here is the part no one says out loud. The reason you are struggling is not because you are lazy or ineffective. It is because you are trying to boil the ocean.
Key Takeaways
- Trying to reach everyone in your total addressable market usually means you reach nobody in a meaningful way.
- The shift from TAM to SOM thinking separates reactive sellers from strategic ones by forcing deliberate decisions about focus.
- SOM thinking is not a segmentation exercise. It is a decision lens that helps sellers choose where to invest limited time and energy so momentum can actually build.
- Slowing down to decide where to play is what ultimately speeds up revenue later.
Who This Is For
This article is for B2B sellers and sales leaders who feel trapped in high activity with low results. If you are managing hundreds of accounts but struggling to generate meaningful conversations, this shift will help you stop chasing pipeline and start building it intentionally.
The Boil the Ocean Trap
Most sellers are reacting to pressure, not operating from a clear decision framework. The belief is subtle but powerful. If pipeline feels thin, the safest response must be to reach more people, faster.
That belief rarely comes from laziness or lack of skill. It is reinforced by dashboards, activity targets, and constant visibility into what is not working yet. Silence from prospects creates urgency. Leadership asks about coverage. The pressure to show motion builds quickly. Under that pressure, sellers do not stop to decide. They default to expansion.
Everything feels equally important. Every account feels like a missed opportunity. Narrowing focus feels risky, even irresponsible, so outreach grows wider instead. Activity increases, but clarity disappears.
This is the boil the ocean trap.
The problem is not effort. The problem is that urgency replaces judgment. When everything feels urgent, nothing gets prioritized. Sellers stay busy, but they are not being intentional about where their effort has the highest chance of converting.
Pipeline pressure does not mean you should do more. It means you need to decide where to play.
That decision is uncomfortable because it requires tradeoffs. It means accepting that some accounts will wait. It means choosing focus before results are guaranteed. But without that decision, effort scatters and momentum never has a chance to build.
Breaking out of the boil the ocean trap starts with recognizing that activity is not the same thing as progress. Progress comes from choosing where your attention actually belongs.
Why TAM Thinking Keeps Sellers Stuck
TAM, or total addressable market, represents everyone who could theoretically buy from you. It is useful for forecasting and fundraising. It is terrible for daily execution. When sellers operate in TAM thinking, every account feels equally important. No decision feels safe. Everything becomes urgent, even when nothing is working.
Better sellers narrow their focus to SAM, or sales addressable market. These are the accounts they could realistically sell to right now.
The best sellers go one step further. They focus on SOM.
What SOM Thinking Actually Changes
SOM stands for sales obtainable market. These are the accounts where you are most likely to win in the near term.
Not someday. Not eventually. Now.
SOM thinking is not about shrinking ambition. It is about sequencing focus. You are deciding where to invest your limited time and energy so momentum can build.
This shift changes the questions you ask yourself. Instead of asking, “How can I reach more people?” you start asking, “Where can I win today?”
That single question changes everything.
The CEO of Territory Mindset
Early in my career, I worked in an ultra-transactional sales environment. We could call anyone in the entire country. There were no assigned industries, no geographic focus, and no real constraints. On paper, that level of freedom sounded ideal. In practice, it was paralyzing.
When everyone could be a buyer, nothing felt prioritized. Every call felt urgent. Every decision felt reversible. I was busy, but I was not being deliberate.
That experience forced a shift in how I thought about my role. I stopped asking who could buy and started asking where my effort actually made sense right now.
This is what I mean by the CEO of Territory mindset.
It is not about dialing faster or executing harder. It is about accepting that your time, energy, and attention are limited resources. Like any leader, you have to decide where to invest them and where not to.
When you treat your territory like a business instead of a list, focus stops feeling restrictive. It becomes clarifying. You are no longer reacting to pressure. You are choosing direction.
That choice is what creates the conditions for momentum later.
Focus Creates Momentum, Not Limitation
One of the biggest fears sellers have is that narrowing their focus will limit opportunity. It feels risky to decide where to spend your time when quota pressure is already high.
What actually happens is the opposite.
When you focus on a defined group of accounts, the work gets easier to do well. Research improves because patterns start to show up. You begin to see the same priorities, the same objections, and the same internal dynamics across conversations. Messaging gets sharper because it is grounded in reality instead of assumptions. Confidence increases because those conversations stop feeling one-off and start feeling repeatable.
At that point, you are no longer chasing prospects or reinventing your approach every week. You are building momentum.
Focus does not limit opportunity. It concentrates effort in the places where it can actually compound.
The False Urgency of “Pipeline Now”
Pipeline pressure often creates panic that looks like productivity. More emails, more calls, more activity. On the surface, it feels responsible. It feels like you are doing something to move the number.
The problem is that urgency without direction does not create progress. Real urgency comes from reaching the right people with the right message at the right time. That requires decision-making, not volume. It requires knowing where your effort is most likely to convert and committing to that choice, even when the pressure to do more is loud.
When sellers feel behind, the instinct is to expand outreach and hope something breaks through. SOM thinking does the opposite. It asks where effort will actually matter, and it accepts that focus is part of the work.
That is not avoidance. It is discipline.
Why SOM Thinking Reduces Burnout
Burnout rarely comes from effort alone. More often, it comes from uncertainty.
When sellers do not know where wins are likely to come from, every day feels reactive. Rejection feels heavier than it should. Progress is hard to see, even when a lot of work is happening, because nothing seems to build on itself.
SOM thinking reduces that uncertainty by creating a clear point of focus. Sellers know who they are working and why those accounts matter right now. They can explain their strategy, track progress more meaningfully, and separate individual losses from the bigger picture they are building toward.
Confidence increases because effort is intentional. Sellers stop feeling like they are chasing outcomes and start feeling like they are working a plan.
Building Repeatable Revenue
The real value of SOM thinking is not what happens in a single quarter. It is what becomes repeatable over time.
When sellers focus on a specific segment, they are able to do the work consistently instead of starting from scratch every cycle. Outreach becomes more coherent. Messaging improves because it is informed by real conversations, not guesses. Learning accelerates because patterns start to emerge and adjustments become easier to make.
That is how pipeline becomes more predictable. Not by increasing activity, but by making better decisions about where effort is most likely to compound.
Where to Start
If you want to stop chasing pipeline, start by narrowing your focus. Choose a defined group of accounts you believe you can realistically win right now. Spend time understanding how those buyers think, what pressures they are under, and why your solution might actually matter to them in this moment. Let that understanding shape your outreach instead of trying to force activity across your entire territory.
You do not need to reach everyone at once. You need to reach the right people first so momentum has a chance to build.
FAQs
What does it actually mean to move from TAM to SOM thinking in sales?
Moving from TAM to SOM thinking changes how you make decisions about where to spend your time. TAM represents theoretical opportunity and includes everyone who could buy from you. SOM is about probability and focuses on the subset of accounts where you are most likely to win in the near term. Most sellers stay anchored in TAM thinking because it feels safer.
When everyone is a potential buyer, no real tradeoffs have to be made and focus can always be postponed. SOM thinking removes that safety net. It forces prioritization and requires you to choose where your effort is most likely to convert right now, even when that choice feels uncomfortable. This shift is not about shrinking ambition. It is about sequencing focus so momentum can build instead of spreading effort so thin that nothing compounds.
Why does chasing pipeline often make performance worse, not better?
Chasing pipeline usually creates urgency without direction, which results in noise rather than progress. When pipeline feels light, sellers often respond by increasing activity instead of improving decision-making. Outreach expands, research becomes shallower, and conversations lose relevance.
The harder sellers push, the less effective their effort becomes because nothing is being prioritized intentionally. Pipeline improves when sellers stop reacting to pressure and start choosing where their effort actually has a chance to convert. Focus creates clarity, clarity improves execution, and execution is what drives results.
How does SOM thinking reduce seller burnout?
Burnout typically comes from uncertainty more than effort. When sellers do not know where wins are likely to come from, every day feels reactive. Rejection feels personal, progress is hard to see, and even high activity feels discouraging because nothing builds on itself. SOM thinking reduces that uncertainty by creating a clear point of focus. Sellers know who they are working and why those accounts matter right now. They can explain their strategy, track progress more meaningfully, and separate individual losses from the bigger picture they are building toward.
Effort feels intentional instead of frantic.
How is SOM thinking different from just working fewer accounts?
Working fewer accounts without strategy is not SOM thinking. SOM thinking is intentional selection based on probability of success, not convenience or capacity alone. It is not about doing less work. It is about doing the right work first. The difference is purpose, not volume, and that purpose is what allows effort to compound over time.
How do I explain SOM thinking to leaders who care about activity metrics?
The conversation needs to shift from activity to outcomes. High activity with low conversion is not efficiency, even if it looks productive on a dashboard. Focused effort with higher engagement creates stronger pipeline quality and more predictable revenue.
If necessary, propose a short test. Compare conversion rates, meeting quality, and deal velocity between broad outreach and a focused SOM approach. Data makes the value of focus visible.
What if my product could work for almost any industry?
Broad applicability does not require broad focus. Even products with wide use cases perform better when sellers choose one segment to build momentum first. Focus allows patterns to emerge, messaging to improve, and confidence to build. Once success is repeatable in one segment, expansion becomes intentional instead of reactive. Focus is how you earn the right to scale.
How long should sellers stay focused on one SOM?
Most sellers should commit to a SOM for 60 to 90 days. That window allows enough time to execute consistently, measure results, and refine messaging without reacting prematurely. Strong results justify staying longer, while weaker results signal a deliberate shift, not panic. SOM thinking is iterative rather than rigid, and it improves through intentional adjustment.
How does SOM thinking improve messaging quality?
Focused segments create patterns that sellers can learn from quickly. When you work within a defined SOM, common priorities, objections, and language begin to surface across conversations. Messaging improves because it is grounded in shared realities instead of assumptions. Relevance increases naturally because sellers understand the context they are speaking into, not just the product they are selling.
What is the biggest mistake sellers make when adopting SOM thinking?
The biggest mistake is treating focus as limitation instead of leverage. SOM thinking is not about saying no forever. It is about saying yes to the right opportunities first. Sellers who abandon focus too quickly often mistake patience for stagnation and return to reactive behavior before momentum has time to build.
How do I know if SOM thinking is working?
You will see clearer conversations, stronger engagement, and more predictable pipeline. Effort will feel calmer and more consistent, and progress will no longer reset every quarter. Over time, results compound instead of starting over. That consistency is the clearest signal that SOM thinking is doing its job.
What framework can I use?
Use a simple SOM decision lens by asking three questions consistently: where do we already win, where do we deeply understand the buyer, and where can we create momentum right now. This lens shifts focus from possibility to probability and helps keep decision-making grounded when pressure rises.
Can you recommend a book to learn more about outbound sales?
Profit Generating Pipeline by Leslie Venetz is available at salesledgtm.com/book.