All market segments have room to grow, both in terms of account-level penetration, as well as additional products and increased participation at the employee level. Unless you are one of the largest national brokerage/consulting houses, any segment can provide opportunity far into the future. Still, that doesn't mean that each segment will be equally easy to exploit and master. Look at the chart below to see a few key characteristics by account size.

The markets in the middle (100 to 2,500 lives)

These segments are the most heavily sold, comparing the percentage of overall sales to the percentage of people employed. They also employ fewer people than either of the other groups (smaller or larger markets). On an employer basis, they represent less than 2 percent of all U.S. businesses. The market is small (in terms of accounts), but sales have been much stronger than in the other two groups (compared to the number of employees). One should expect competition at the account level to be robust, with significant capabilities at the employee-engagement level. Brokers in this space need to be excellent at both business- and consumer-level selling.