When "mail.google.com" loads (the "inbox view") the emails from people
in my crm/social networks should be "glowing" or "jumping out at me".
I LOVE your guys' product as is, but won't you really be maximizing
efficacy by splitting the inbox into two "virtual" inboxes: one being
messages to me from outside my crm/social network and two being those
messages from people already in my crm/social network.

If you add this feature, not only will you meet your desired target
demo use case but open yourself to the use case for average consumers
who would like to only see gmail emails from facebook friends (and
ignore the rest, aka SPAM). In this case I'd recommend your web app
living a "dual-brand" life and branch development (if i had to guess
this would double your odds of being acquired by Google, Google know's
email's on it's last leg so if your app can bridge the old to the new
(Google Wave) for both consumers and business users than whats a few
hundred million to nab them up? lol)

Good luck! Thanks for rapportive!