Articles & Case Studies
Micro TAMs: Finding Fewer Than 100 Accounts
In a micro TAM, a few missing accounts can materially change the campaign. Define the eligible company precisely and verify candidates individually rather than assuming a search is exhaustive.
· updated October 6, 2026
Some B2B campaigns have fewer than 100 plausible accounts. An executive search in a narrow construction specialty or a product sold to a small class of industrial distributors may need a carefully researched list rather than a large export.
I use micro TAM here to mean a small addressable account universe. Revenue TAM is a separate calculation that also needs deal value and buying assumptions.
Define the unit before counting it
Decide whether an account is a parent company, branch, licensed facility, or individual practice. Specify geography and the activity that qualifies it.
This prevents a list of 70 locations from being compared with a list of 50 organizations as though one source necessarily has better coverage.
Client requests have included regional construction hiring, power-line component distributors, and specialist medical facilities. Each needs a different account definition and a clear geographic boundary.
Use several paths to find candidates
Start with known organizations and their terminology. Add semantic company search, exact phrases, trade directories, and relevant registries where available.
Use each new qualified account to inspect nearby business language and refine the query. Keep the source of every candidate so you can distinguish independent discoveries from repeated directory entries.
Verify every candidate
For a small market, individual review is practical and valuable. Record the evidence for inclusion, current domain, location, and any unresolved requirement.
Track rejected candidates too. They help avoid repeating research and expose ambiguous rules. A business that lacks public evidence should remain uncertain rather than disappearing silently.
Measure completeness honestly
Compare against known lists and ask subject-matter experts to identify omissions. You may reach a useful working account universe without proving that every eligible company has been found.
DiscoLike combines semantic discovery, phrase matching, and research to support this process. Book a demo with your niche definition and a few known accounts so we can test the search boundaries.
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