Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
You know that sinking feeling when you see your form analytics? 73% of visitors start filling out your contact form, then just... disappear. Traditional wisdom tells you to reduce friction, shorten forms, and make everything "easier." But what if I told you that sometimes the opposite works better?
While working on a complete website revamp for a Shopify e-commerce client, I discovered something that goes against everything we're taught about form optimization. Instead of reducing friction, I strategically added more. Instead of generic copy, I got personal. Instead of corporate polish, I embraced humanity.
The result? Contact form submissions didn't just increase—they transformed from transactions into conversations. Customers started replying to emails, asking questions, and sharing specific issues we could fix site-wide.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why conventional form optimization often backfires in B2B contexts
The "qualifying friction" strategy that filters out tire-kickers while attracting serious prospects
How a newsletter-style approach to abandoned cart emails doubled response rates
Real examples of adding friction that improved lead quality
When to break conventional wisdom (and when to follow it)
This isn't theory—it's what actually happened when I stopped following best practices and started solving real problems.
Counter-Wisdom
What every conversion expert tells you
Walk into any CRO conference, and you'll hear the same mantra repeated like a religious chant: "Reduce friction. Simplify forms. Ask for less information." The conversion optimization industry has built an entire ecosystem around this single principle.
The standard playbook goes like this:
Minimize form fields - Ask only for name and email, nothing more
Remove optional fields - Every additional field is supposedly a conversion killer
Use single-step forms - Multi-step forms are "too complex" for modern users
Avoid qualifying questions - Let the sales team sort out leads later
Generic confirmation messaging - Keep it brief and professional
This wisdom exists because it works... for e-commerce. When someone's buying a $29 product, friction is the enemy. Every additional click costs sales. The math is simple: more friction = fewer conversions = less revenue.
But here's where it falls apart: B2B SaaS isn't e-commerce. You're not selling impulse purchases. You're asking someone to integrate your solution into their business, trust you with their data, and potentially change their entire workflow. The decision-making process is completely different.
Yet most B2B companies apply e-commerce conversion tactics and wonder why their sales teams are drowning in unqualified leads. They optimize for quantity metrics that look good in reports while ignoring the quality metrics that actually drive revenue.
The real problem? Generic "best practices" assume all conversions are created equal. They're not.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project that changed my perspective started innocently enough. I was working on a complete website revamp for a Shopify e-commerce client, and the original brief was straightforward: update the abandoned checkout emails to match the new brand guidelines. New colors, new fonts, done.
But as I opened the old template—with its product grid, discount codes, and "COMPLETE YOUR ORDER NOW" buttons—something felt off. This was exactly what every other e-commerce store was sending. Cookie-cutter automation that treated customers like conversion metrics rather than humans.
Around the same time, I was also working with a B2B startup on their website revamp. They had a classic problem: lots of contact form traffic, but most inquiries were tire-kickers or completely misaligned with their ideal customer profile. Their sales team was spending hours on discovery calls that went nowhere.
The conventional solution would have been to simplify their contact form—reduce fields, remove friction, increase conversion rates. Every marketing blog and CRO guru was preaching the same gospel: "Fewer form fields equals more conversions."
But I started questioning this logic. What if the goal isn't just more conversions? What if it's better conversions?
The e-commerce client gave me the perfect testing ground for this theory. Instead of just updating colors and fonts, I completely reimagined their abandoned cart email approach. Rather than treating it as a sales recovery tool, I transformed it into a customer service touchpoint.
For the B2B client, I went completely against conventional wisdom. Instead of reducing form fields, I added more qualifying questions. Instead of making contact "easier," I made it more intentional.
Both experiments taught me the same lesson: sometimes the best way to improve conversions isn't to remove friction—it's to add the right kind of friction in the right places.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Let me walk you through exactly what I did, because the details matter.
The E-commerce Email Transformation
Instead of the typical corporate template, I created what I call a "newsletter-style recovery email." Here's the complete breakdown:
Design Changes:
Ditched the traditional e-commerce template entirely
Used a newsletter-style design that felt like a personal note
Wrote it in first person, as if the business owner was reaching out directly
Changed the subject line from "You forgot something!" to "You had started your order..."
The Critical Addition:
Through conversations with the client, I discovered customers were struggling with payment validation, especially with double authentication requirements. Rather than ignoring this friction, I addressed it head-on in the email.
I added a simple 3-point troubleshooting list:
Payment authentication timing out? Try again with your bank app already open
Card declined? Double-check your billing ZIP code matches exactly
Still having issues? Just reply to this email—I'll help you personally
The B2B Form Transformation
For the B2B startup, I implemented what I call "qualifying friction." Instead of reducing form fields, I strategically added more:
Company type dropdown - Helped pre-qualify industry fit
Job title selection - Identified decision-makers vs. researchers
Budget range indicator - Separated serious prospects from price shoppers
Project timeline - Distinguished immediate needs from future planning
Specific use case categories - Enabled better sales preparation
The Psychology Behind It
The key insight was recognizing that intentional friction acts as a self-selection mechanism. People willing to fill out a detailed form are inherently more serious about finding a solution. They're already investing time, which indicates genuine interest.
For the e-commerce client, addressing real customer pain points in the recovery email transformed a sales tool into a customer service touchpoint. Instead of just pushing for the sale, we were solving actual problems.
Implementation Details
The e-commerce email was A/B tested against the original template for 30 days. The B2B form changes were implemented across all contact points simultaneously to ensure consistency in lead quality measurement.
Key Insight
Friction isn't always the enemy—sometimes it's a quality filter that saves everyone time and improves satisfaction.
Message Transformation
Shifted from corporate automation to personal conversation, treating customers as humans with real problems to solve.
Quality Over Quantity
Total lead volume stayed similar, but lead quality improved dramatically, reducing sales team time waste.
Human Touch
Added personal troubleshooting help and direct reply option, turning transactions into relationship-building opportunities.
The results challenged everything I thought I knew about conversion optimization.
E-commerce Recovery Email Results:
Email reply rates doubled compared to the standard template
Customers started asking questions instead of just completing purchases
Several customers shared specific checkout issues that led to site-wide improvements
The personal approach generated word-of-mouth referrals
B2B Contact Form Results:
Total inquiry volume remained roughly the same
Lead quality transformed completely—sales stopped wasting time on unqualified prospects
Discovery calls became more productive because prospects were pre-qualified
Sales team could prepare better for calls knowing company type, budget, and timeline
The timeline was surprisingly quick. The e-commerce email changes showed immediate results within the first week. The B2B form improvements were noticeable within the first month as sales team feedback confirmed higher lead quality.
But the most unexpected outcome was how these changes affected team dynamics. The sales team went from dreading discovery calls to being excited about qualified prospects. Customer service inquiries became more productive because people were reaching out with specific, solvable problems.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
Here are the seven biggest lessons from these experiments:
Question the source of best practices - Most CRO advice comes from e-commerce contexts and doesn't apply to complex B2B sales
Optimize for the right metric - More conversions aren't always better conversions; quality often beats quantity
Address real problems in your communications - The troubleshooting list worked because it solved actual customer pain points
Friction can be a feature, not a bug - When used strategically, friction filters out unqualified prospects
Personal beats corporate every time - Humans respond to humans, not to branded automation
Test your assumptions - What "everyone knows" might not apply to your specific situation
Think system-wide - Form optimization affects your entire sales and service process, not just conversion rates
If I were to do this again, I'd implement changes more gradually to better isolate the impact of each modification. I'd also set up better tracking for qualitative metrics like sales team satisfaction and customer service efficiency.
This approach works best when you have a clear understanding of your ideal customer profile and when your sales team is drowning in unqualified leads. It doesn't work for impulse purchases or low-consideration products where friction genuinely hurts conversion.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing this approach:
Add company size and budget qualification to demo requests
Use multi-step forms to gauge serious intent
Address common onboarding friction in automated emails
Write trial emails in first person from the founder
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores adapting this strategy:
Address payment and shipping concerns proactively in cart recovery
Use personal tone in automated customer service
Add "reply for help" options in transactional emails
Qualify B2B customers with additional fields for wholesale inquiries