CRM Update – Apr 25 : 2:37 pm

Program additions include business planning support, the formation of a partner advisory board, and a certification program.

If you don’t understand the answers to these critical questions, your sales operation may be in jeopardy.When business people discuss selling, there are five questions that constantly pop up–and often spark arguments. I thought I’d do everyone a favor and answer those questions once and for all.Q: Are great salespeople are born or made?A: Born. Numerous studies reveal there is a very small percentage of people who are natural sales stars, with a near-savant ability to sell inside a certain environment…

Even if you’re not the boss, you should be acting like one. Here’s how to take charge of your daily life.I’m not sure where it started, but a little saying has surfaced at our office that I think is great: “Be the CEO of everything you do.”Maybe it’s a little motivational poster-esque, but giving everyone in the company ownership over their domain is important. For us, a culture where everyone approaches their job with a sense of leadership, craft, and responsibility fuels a highly motivated team…

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone West June 11 to 15, the company has announced.
Just like last year, the conference will focus on Apple’s two major software platforms: iOS and OS X.
“We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
Given that June is traditionally the month when the next-generation iPhone is announced, it’ll definitely be in the mix this year, too…

Burger King says they’re going cage-free and proud to be, promising to stop using cramped chicken and pig cages. It says it’ll use 100% cage-free eggs in all U.S. restaurants by 2017 and buy pork from suppliers who show proof that they’re ending the use of gestation crates for breeding sows.

As Reuters notes, today’s announcement by Burger King is the latest in a slew of promises by fast food chains to satisfy consumers who have become more interested in where their food comes from…

Earlier this week, a number of Etsy sellers and shoppers were upset at the website — which is intended to sell only handmade items, vintage goods, or crafting materials — for featuring a shop that some claim is merely a re-seller of mass-produced furniture made from reclaimed wood. But rather than pull the plug on that shop, Etsy has allowed the owner to attempt to clarify matters — and also told its users to stop being such meanies.

One of the big questions that had been raised over the weekend when the seller was first featured on Etsy was, “How could one person possibly make the more than 230 pieces of handmade wood furniture available in their shop?”

Well, Etsy has cleared that up by saying the seller is actually “a collective shop, run on Etsy by Mariana with help from a local staff…

Apple is such an influential brand today that just calling it “iconic” doesn’t really do it justice. The company’s reach goes far beyond tech, with its methods, philosophies and products studied and imitated worldwide in the hope that acting like Apple might bring with it some of the company’s tremendous success. Sometimes that approach even works.
But what if a company didn’t want to settle just for a piece of Apple’s pie? What if they actually wanted to beat Apple — to become the next “superbrand?” What would it take for a company to achieve a level of success that would leave Apple in the rear-view mirror?
Looking at Apple today, the question itself strains credulity…

Local merchants typically find it difficult to attract and retain customers. Providing loyalty cards is cumbersome – the merchant has to issue the cards, invest in point of sale devices, train staff and the customer has to carry the card and remember to offer it at the time of purchase.
LocalBonus has used the same technology offered by airlines to reward frequent fliers to overcome this hurdle. Merchants and customers who sign up for the program do not require additional cards. Once the credit or debit card is entered, customers become eligible to collect bonus points on all purchases at member retailers…

Striiv launched on Wednesday its new touchscreen smart pedometer that not only tracks your steps and motivates you to walk, but also allows you to compete against friends in virtual races and challenges.
The new social Striiv Smart Pedometer ($99.95) monitors your physical habits and creates personal challenges and goals based on your behavior. It also sends gentle reminders throughout the day to walk more, take the stairs and lead a healthier lifestyle.
The built-in social component adds an extra layer of entertainment by allowing you to race against friends for real-life prizes, such as household chores or a cup of coffee…

President Obama made television history last night by becoming the first sitting president to slow jam the news with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots on NBC’s “Late Night.”
“I’m President Barack Obama, and I, too, would like to Slow Jam the News,” said the president before Fallon’s band, The Roots, saluted him with a sampling of “Hail to the Chief.”
Obama and Fallon slow jammed the president’s efforts to stop Congress from allowing interest rates on government-subsidized student loans from doubling…

1. Mr. GIF

This Tumblr boasts an assortment of original GIFs, and brings photos of models and famous quotes to life with animation.Click here to view this gallery.How many animated images can a person browse through before going cross-eyed? Challenge accepted.
The Tumblr “GIF” tag is filled with enough original animated artwork to make for an eternity of scrolling, but if you want to take it to the next level, there are a number of sites dedicated to specific GIF sub-categories…

Instead of schlepping small checks she receives all the way to a local bank branch, Robin likes to use PayPal’s smartphone check-capturing service and deposit the funds in her PayPal account. That’s a pretty neat trick…at least until two checks went missing entirely in PayPal’s system, and no one can tell Robin where they went because the check-cashing services are handled by a third-party vendor, not PayPal itself.

I don’t like going to the bank.

I do like using check capture services on my phone to take pictures of checks and having them magically (though slowly, usually 7-10 days) appear in my account…

The paper resume is quickly fading faster than feature phones and TiVo.
Today more than ever, social networking and the digital antics that provide for getting to know all the “right people” is supplanting the traditional steps to employment across myriad industries.
But just as LinkedIn, for example, can help a prospective job seeker find a dream position inside of a thriving company, those late night emotional tweets and inebriated Facebook pictures from last New Year’s Eve can quickly erase any hopes of social media leading to a new job…

Welcome to this morning’s edition of ‘First To Know‘, a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories.
Google Launches Google Drive
After months of speculation and rumors, Google has finally launched its cloud file storage service, Google Drive, with 5GB of storage for free. Check out how it stacks against its competitors in our analysis.
Apple’s Quarterly Earnings Report
Apple sold 35…

Billionaire Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX is, it seems, no more immune to mission delays than our former space ferry captain, NASA. Early yesterday, Musk announced on Twitter a week-long delay of the scheduled launch of the Dragon spacecraft (atop the company’s Falcon rocket) while Musk’s team debugged the Dragon’s docking code.
When Mashable spoke to Musk a few weeks ago, he actually joked about how that part of the first private mission to the International Space Station would go:
“The thing that’s interesting and slightly scary is that Dragon is a robotic spaceship, automatically navigating itself to the space station,” Musk explained…

Does your company need just a bit more capital to scale and make it to profitability? Or is it just a money pit? How to tell.Your business seems like it is growing well enough, but your cash flow isn’t what you want it to be. You have customers, perhaps not as many as you would like, but your product is definitely selling. Your company’s ability to make or lose money seems to depend more on when your profits (or losses) are measured than anything else.One month is good, but then the whole quarter isn’t…

Do you know if your social media promotions or campaigns were successful?For many businesses, it can be easy to label a social campaign a huge hit or a blatant blunder, but which elements made the campaign successful?There are an array of powerful and free tools that can be used to help you understand the successes and failures of your social media promotion or campaign.Let’s dive into four easy ways you can use free products to break down the different elements of a social promotion.#1: Track Actions Visitors TakeOne way to better understand your social campaign as a whole is to understand how your users find out about it…

Becoming a more charismatic leader can help your company. It can also trip it up.Very few leadership attributes have as dangerous a downside as charisma. This is largely true because the outward signs of good charisma and bad charisma are similar. Here are three broad categories of dangerous charisma, and how to avoid them in your personal leadership.1. Leaders can become addicted to charisma This is a variation on the adage “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” A leader who employs too much charisma can come to rely on this ability as an end unto itself…

If you try to use your credit or debit card and find that it’s been abruptly shut down, thank your bank. They’ve proactively shut down your compromised card, theoretically saving you from a cascade of fraudulent charges. So that’s nice. But what bothered Scott when this happened to him is that no one called him to give him a heads up.

I went to my BoA online banking today and found that my Visa card had disappeared from my list of accounts. I called BoA’s online banking customer service # and was told that my account was closed because the card was reported lost/stolen…

A strategic partnership with Urban Airship provides the technology for targeted, context-aware push notifications.

If you’re not really a fan of electronic games, it might not be clear to you why EA took the top poo in this year’s Worst Company in America Tournament. Maybe Alex’s experience can serve as an illustration. There was no huge amount of money involved, and his problem with EA didn’t affect his day-to-day life. But the utter lack of response from EA to a real and easily solved problem makes even a loyal customer like Scott feel that they don’t matter.

So I bought Fifa 12 this past fall…

The Global Innovation Series is presented by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.
We all lead busy lives, and the last thing we need is to come from a long day to find our mailboxes overflowing with junk mail. How many times have you received an unwanted credit card offer and thrown it out without even opening the envelope? It’s wasteful and unnecessary…

Cloud storage service Box is bringing a number of updates to its service Wednesday. Updates include a new API for its open platform, 15 new OneCloud application partners and partnerships with two centers of technology excellence based in New York City –- General Assembly and TechStars.
Box has been in the cloud storage game since 2005. Ten million people use the service globally, and more than 120,000 businesses use it. Those users access more than 200 million files on Box each month, and 82% of the Fortune 500 use the service…

The Government Cloud will offer a dedicated, secure infrastructure for government agencies.