OK, I’ll admit that as a 30 year user of, and consultant for, Windows products I might be a bit prejudiced but can anyone explain to me the current obsession with Apple products?  My local Apple store had a line wrapped around the mall before the holidays, and I witnessed similar occurrences at the Apple stores in New York.  Apparently the iPad was the gift of choice this season surpassing the... 

Having written numerous books on ACT! software I frequently receive phone calls from strangers that go something like this: “We purchased ACT! a few years ago and it’s just not working for us.  No one is using it.  We’d like to switch to ABC_CRM.  They gave us a really great demo and I think it’s exactly what we need.” My advice is that rather than investing in more CRM software they need... 

I’m fairly good about getting ready for the holiday season.  In fact, I have a pretty set schedule:  decorations go up the weekend after Thanksgiving and come down the weekend after New Years.  Most gifts are purchased via the Internet on Black Friday.  I even stock up on little “stocking stuffers” just in case I left someone off my list.  But, like everyone else, I find myself at the mall... 

I received a rather bizarre e-mail last Saturday night just as I was getting ready to enjoy a lovely evening at a Marlins game.  It came in to my business account from my Yahoo account and was asking me to send money to myself.  According to the e-mail I was attending a seminar in England and needed some extra cash.  This was all news to me as I was sitting in my Boca Raton home. About that time... 

Today’s post is by guest blogger, Deborah Shane of Train with Shane.  Deborah is an empowerment expert who specializes in career transitioning for women and provides sales, marketing and branding consulting.  She can be heard on her weekly on Blog Talk Radio. Take it away, Deborah! It’s amazing what you can do online, for free, in terms of connecting with your potential and existing customers... 

I just returned from two weeks in beautiful Ventura, California, where I was recording new training videos for lynda.com on Outlook 2010.  In addition to beautiful weather, California is the home to the In-N-Out hamburger chain. For those of you unfamiliar with the In-N-Out chain, they have approximately 250 locations sprinkled throughout the Southwest.  Compare that to McDonald’s who has over... 

Boy, do I hear that question a lot!  Sometimes I get a variation (feel free to substitute the name of the current CRM product du jour for Sales Force). Here’s the deal.  I know folks like you – I call them ACT fanactics.  I had 500 of them wait in line to get into a seminar I ran in August, 2002 on a not so sunny night in South Florida introducing the all new ACT 6.  I guarantee I wouldn’t... 

Today’s post is by guest blogger, Deborah Shane of Train with Shane.  Deborah is an empowerment expert who specializes in career transitioning for women and provides sales, marketing and branding consulting.  She can be heard on her weekly on Blog Talk Radio. Take it away, Deborah! Yea, you made a warm contact, connection and received some promising referrals! What comes next? QUALIFYING:... 

I love sports and I’m a sucker for Cinderella stories so I was pretty excited to see that Butler made it all the way to the NCAA Basketball Championship final this week.  After all, if my beloved Gators couldn’t be there I was glad to see that my dad’s alma mater was represented.  Maybe I’m prejudiced, but it seemed to me that most of the country was rooting for Butler.  Most of us like... 

I’ve lost ten pounds since the holidays!  Having been on the Injured Reserve list with a knee injury for over a year I packed on the extra weight.  I’ve been fortunate enough all my life not to have to deal with weight loss issues so I wasn’t sure what to do.  Quite frankly, the thought of paying hundreds of dollars for artificial meals or drinks wasn’t appealing so I tackled the problem...