I am often asked about how best to get into companies to sell long-term care to the owners, executives and partners, and my response is often to get the inquiring minds to look in the mirror.

That's right – some self-reflection. The reason for it is that we all have what is commonly referred to as "inventory." Our inventory can be of the "retail" subset – where we ourselves know the people in power in companies (or that make benefits-related decisions), because of the circles we travel in, or maybe because we have a personal or business relationship with them on some level. Or, it can be of the "wholesale" subset – where someone else knows the people in power and can possibly make a favorable introduction on your behalf.

Knowing this, for your business plan for 2008, maybe an exercise might be to write down all of the people from both your "retail" list and "wholesale" list and create strategies for each on how you will get in front of them.