Remember this classic scene from the Odd Couple?

Felix Unger: [to woman on witness stand] Ah … you assumed. My dear, you should never assume. You see, when you assume… [Felix writes the word "assume" on a blackboard] … you make an ass out of u and me.

Want to know what really gets in the way of better conversion rates? All too often it isn’t what you do. It’s what you don’t do! It’s not what you put in to your conversion system; it’s what you leave out of your conversion system.

I’m talking about the unspoken assumptions every business makes when it plans for conversion. Come see what I mean.

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Poor Melissa. A dastardly somebody broke into my dear co-worker’s car and stole her video iPod!! *passes out tissues* This is a woman who lives the fully-integrated iPod life Apple imagines for its customers – podcasts, audiobooks, movies, TV shows, music. She was devastated. And she knew, without question, she had to replace her iPod immediately.

So she started her search for a replacement iPod the way many folks do: online through a search engine. How hard could it be for Apple to answer one important question and help her get back quickly into her pod-groove?

Harder than you might think … because the scenario Melissa stumbled upon was laced with Apple’s unspoken assumptions about what Melissa should need to know.

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