In today's competitive B2B SaaS landscape, one of the most common challenges sales teams face is dealing with a small Total Addressable Market (TAM). If your TAM is limited, you can't simply spray and pray - sending out generic emails and hoping for the best. Instead, you need a strategic, methodical approach to maximise your outreach, optimise your messaging, and nurture every opportunity with precision.
This comprehensive guide explores practical strategies to succeed when your TAM isn't large. Drawing on insights from seasoned outbound sales expert Olivier, who has helped multiple tech companies find early traction and scale their sales efforts with smart revenue systems, we'll dive deep into how to approach small TAMs effectively. Whether you operate in fragmented markets like Europe or more consolidated regions like the US, this article will walk you through the nuances of targeting, personalisation, multichannel outreach, AI integration, and much more.
A small TAM means you have a limited pool of potential customers to target. For many B2B SaaS companies, this might translate to only a few thousand accounts or even fewer. Olivier explains that typically, a small TAM is anything under 5,000 accounts, with many of his clients operating between 1,000 to 2,000 accounts. When your TAM is this size, traditional broad outbound approaches - spraying messages to thousands of contacts - simply don’t work.
Why? Because with fewer prospects, every outreach counts. If your reply rate is 5%, reaching out to 1,000 accounts only gets you 50 responses, which may not be enough to meet your pipeline goals. This scarcity requires a more refined and personalised approach to maximise conversion rates.
The foundation of success in a small TAM is a crystal-clear understanding of your ICP. Rather than targeting broad categories, narrow down your focus to specific personas and verticals where your product solves the most acute problems.
For example, if you’re an HR tech company targeting mid-market firms, start by hypothesising specific pain points your personas face. Olivier recommends building hypotheses around the problems these personas encounter and testing messaging based on these pain points. This approach ensures your outreach resonates deeply rather than superficially.
Once you begin to get traction, use feedback from sales calls to refine your ICP further. Recording calls and analysing responses helps identify which personas and verticals respond best, allowing you to narrow your targeting and improve messaging precision.
Olivier highlights the power of AI note takers and transcript analysis to scale this process. By aggregating and analysing call transcripts, you can reverse-engineer data to pinpoint exactly which segments and messaging work best. This continuous feedback loop helps optimise your ICP and improve campaign effectiveness over time.
With a small TAM, relying on a single channel like email is insufficient. Multichannel outreach is essential to create multiple touchpoints and increase your chances of engagement.
Olivier’s approach typically includes:
He stresses the importance of starting with connection requests on LinkedIn without sending immediate messages. This tactic warms up the prospect and increases the likelihood that future outreach will be well received.
Using tools like Play and AI agents, you can automate social selling activities such as commenting on posts or asking relevant questions tailored to the prospect’s profile. This human-like engagement helps cut through the noise and build trust gradually.
Market fragmentation is a critical factor, especially in regions like Europe where multiple languages and cultural nuances exist. Olivier advises against selling into markets where you don’t have local language capabilities, even if AI can write in those languages.
For example, sending English emails to French prospects results in extremely low reply rates and sometimes negative reactions. Conversely, outreach in French dramatically improves response rates but requires native speakers or fluent team members to handle calls and meetings.
Here are some key localisation tips:
AI is transforming outbound sales, but its application requires thoughtful strategy, especially with small TAMs. Olivier outlines his current AI stack:
The key rule Olivier follows is “one prompt, one task” - keeping AI tasks focused and simple to avoid overcomplication. For verticalised lists with similar prospects, AI can generate localised and personalised messages at scale, improving reply rates without losing authenticity.
When your TAM is small, it’s essential to reach multiple relevant contacts within each account to increase your chances of engagement. Olivier recommends:
For larger enterprise accounts, you can expand your outreach to 10 or more contacts, but always with personalised and varied messaging to maintain relevance.
Effective cadence is vital for small TAMs. Olivier suggests a typical email sequence of three messages spaced over 10 to 20 working days:
LinkedIn and phone follow-ups complement this sequence. If no valid email is found for a contact, LinkedIn outreach becomes the primary channel. Phone calls are used to accelerate conversations once a prospect replies.
Olivier also emphasises the importance of reengagement. Prospects’ priorities change quarterly, so recontacting them every few months keeps your brand top of mind and increases the likelihood of converting when the timing is right.
One of the biggest growth hacks Olivier shares is calling prospects immediately after they reply to your email or LinkedIn message. Here’s why this approach works:
“As soon as they replied to their email, they’re not waiting for a reply. They’re going to move on to the next one. But if you call them right away, they’re basically doing nothing - they just replied, so it’s a good time to catch them.”
By calling immediately, you increase your chances of booking a meeting, nurturing interest, or gathering valuable information to improve your targeting. Even negative replies should trigger a call, as they often open doors to conversations that can be redirected or salvaged.
When your TAM is small and well-defined, expanding it requires identifying look-alike accounts that share similar characteristics to your best customers. Olivier recommends tools like PandaMatch for this purpose, which he finds slightly better than alternatives like Ocean.
The process involves plugging in your existing accounts or domains to find comparable companies, then experimenting with new verticals or use cases based on positive replies and learnings from your initial outreach.
While look-alike targeting is common at the account level, Olivier notes that tools for identifying look-alikes based on contact titles or roles are not widely available yet.
Personalisation is more than just inserting first names. Olivier encourages going the extra mile with local personalisation and creative touches:
For example, Olivier once saw a personalised PS line asking if the prospect had taken a specific, quirky bus route - a creative way to stand out.
Beyond email, LinkedIn, and calling, Olivier experiments with other channels to engage prospects in a small TAM:
While WhatsApp automation has been tested, results in Europe have been underwhelming. Prospects often react negatively to unsolicited messages on personal numbers, making this channel risky.
Including personalised videos, especially in follow-up emails, can increase reply rates. For instance, one client used a 90-second Loom video showcasing their referral software, which resonated well with prospects.
However, video outreach should be used judiciously, as larger enterprises may be wary of clicking unknown links.
Though less common, voice notes can add a human touch to outreach. Olivier continues to experiment with this method to find what resonates best.
Direct mail remains a surprisingly effective channel for small TAMs, especially with high-value prospects. Sending personalised, “highly confidential” packages or branded merchandise can break through digital noise.
Olivier shares examples such as sending personalised pens to new business registrants or even expensive items like locked phones that can only be unlocked by calling back. These tactics create memorable brand impressions and provide a natural reason to follow up with a call.
When prospects are already using a competitor’s product, displacing them requires tact and insight. Olivier suggests asking open-ended questions like:
“What is one thing that could change your mind? What is one thing that you feel could be improved?”
Understanding the prospect’s pain points with their current solution opens the door to positioning your product as a better fit. Battle cards comparing your offering against competitors can be powerful tools to highlight differentiators.
Creating dedicated landing pages that showcase feature comparisons and customer reviews from trusted sources (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot) can also help prospects evaluate alternatives objectively.
Setting goals with a small TAM requires a long-term view. Olivier advises:
He also emphasises the importance of backward analysis: understanding how many leads you need to contact to generate your desired number of meetings and deals. Most companies underestimate this, leading to pipeline shortfalls.
Efficiently managing replies and transitioning prospects to sales calls is crucial. Olivier recommends:
When you get a reply and book a call, always ask if other stakeholders should join. The more decision-makers involved, the higher the chances of closing the deal.
Olivier and Frank recommend proactively inviting co-founders or relevant colleagues to calls and using this as an opportunity to expand your reach within the account.
For niche services like UX design or targeting high-net-worth individuals, Olivier suggests:
When your Total Addressable Market is small, every outreach effort must count. Spray and pray tactics simply don’t work. Instead, success demands a well-honed strategy built on deep ICP understanding, multichannel outreach, localisation, AI-powered research, personalised messaging, and timely follow-up.
Olivier’s experience shows that combining human insight with smart automation and persistent, creative engagement can unlock significant pipeline opportunities - even in the tightest markets. Whether through personalised videos, direct mail, or immediate callbacks, you can break through the noise and build meaningful conversations that lead to closed deals.
Remember, small TAMs require patience, experimentation, and continuous learning. By applying these principles, you’ll not only maximise your current market but also lay a strong foundation for sustainable growth over time.
If you’re ready to move beyond spraying and praying and start building a smart revenue system tailored to your small TAM, it's time to try out Salesforge for free!
