LinkedIn Thursday, July 30, 2026
Most useful signal is hidden in plain sight.
You can execute perfectly and still miss the target.
That’s what happens when companies confuse Total Addressable Market with Total Relevant Market.
Clay’s new search makes it easier to describe a market in natural language and generate the account list you had in mind.
That’s great for Clay as you burn through credits. It’s not necessarily good for your client, who needs conversations and conversions.
A better TAM is still the wrong answer if you haven’t done the fundamentals.
I once worked with an enterprise Claygency that spent significant time and money building a TAM. I recommended we define the Total Relevant Market instead.
They didn’t know how.
They knew how to find more accounts, but they didn’t know how to determine which accounts the business could serve well, win, retain, and expand.
Needless to say, we don’t work together anymore.
TAM sizes the opportunity. It doesn’t tell your GTM team where to compete.
TRM does.
It identifies the customers your company can reach, serve well, win, retain, and expand.
That requires more than firmographics and technographics.
You need to know which segments already perform best, why they buy, and what makes them ready.
You also need to know whether Sales can win them consistently and whether Customer Success can retain and expand them.
AI can make account sourcing faster. It can also help you waste money faster.
Build the market logic first. Then let the tools scale it.
Execution Beats Theory. Every Time.
👋 Hi, I'm Tim. I help engineering-led startups and mid-market scaleups build adaptive GTM systems, unify revenue, and scale with Agentic AI.
At Entry Point 1, we partner with engineering-led startups and mid-market scaleups that operate intentionally and play to win. We've helped generate $1B+ in revenue across our work.
If you're ready to win, we're ready to help you get there: https://lnkd.in/gB64Mt2D
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