Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
OK, so last month I had a B2B startup client come to me with a classic problem - their mobile contact form was getting plenty of views but almost zero submissions. You know the drill, right? Everyone was telling them to make it simpler, remove fields, add auto-fill, whatever.
Here's the thing though - I did the complete opposite. Instead of making their form easier to fill out, I made it harder. I added more fields, more qualifying questions, more friction. The result? We doubled their mobile form submission rate in three weeks.
Now, before you think I'm completely crazy, let me explain why this counter-intuitive approach actually works - especially for B2B companies looking for quality leads on mobile devices.
Here's what you'll learn from this experiment:
Why reducing friction sometimes attracts the wrong visitors
The psychology behind qualifying questions on mobile
My exact 4-step framework for strategic friction
How to measure quality vs quantity in form submissions
When this approach works (and when it completely backfires)
This isn't about making forms difficult for the sake of it - it's about optimizing for the right kind of submissions that actually convert into customers.
Counter-intuitive
What every conversion expert will tell you
If you've read any conversion optimization guide in the last five years, you've heard the same advice over and over again. The conventional wisdom goes something like this:
The Standard Mobile Form Optimization Playbook:
Reduce form fields to the absolute minimum (name and email only)
Use large, thumb-friendly buttons and input fields
Enable auto-fill and smart suggestions
Remove any unnecessary steps or questions
Add progress bars and completion indicators
This advice exists because mobile users have shorter attention spans, right? They're on the go, using their thumbs, dealing with smaller screens. Every extra field is another opportunity for them to bounce.
And you know what? This approach works perfectly - if you're optimizing for quantity over quality. If your goal is just to collect as many email addresses as possible, then yes, shorter forms win every time.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls apart: in B2B, the quality of your leads matters more than the quantity. A form that generates 100 unqualified leads is actually worse than a form that generates 20 highly qualified prospects.
The problem is that most businesses are measuring the wrong metrics. They're celebrating increased form submissions without looking at what happens next - the sales calls that go nowhere, the demos that don't convert, the time wasted on tire-kickers.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
So here's the situation I walked into. My client was a B2B startup in the project management space - think somewhere between Asana and Monday.com but focused on creative agencies. They had a decent website, good traffic from content marketing, but their mobile contact form was basically a black hole.
The numbers were pretty brutal: about 3,000 mobile visitors per month, roughly 300 people viewing the contact page, but only around 15 form submissions. That's a 5% conversion rate from contact page views, which sounds OK until you realize that of those 15 submissions, maybe 2-3 were actually qualified prospects.
The existing form was the textbook "optimized" version: just name, email, and a simple "Tell us about your project" text area. Big buttons, clean design, mobile-friendly. Everything the conversion guides told them to do.
But here's what was happening - and I only figured this out after diving into their sales data. Most mobile submissions were coming from:
Freelancers looking for free project management tools
Students working on school projects
People who thought they were signing up for a newsletter
Tire-kickers with no budget or decision-making authority
The sales team was spending hours each week on discovery calls that went absolutely nowhere. The marketing team was celebrating their "leads" while the sales team was getting frustrated with the quality.
That's when I proposed something that made the client think I'd lost my mind: What if we made the form harder to fill out?
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
OK, so here's exactly what I did - and why it worked better than anyone expected.
Step 1: The Qualification Layer
Instead of just asking for name and email, I added specific qualifying questions designed to filter out unqualified prospects before they even submitted:
Company type (Agency, In-house team, Freelancer, Student, Other)
Team size (1-5, 6-15, 16-50, 50+)
Current project management tool (if any)
Budget range (Under $500/month, $500-2000, $2000+)
Timeline (Evaluating now, Next 3 months, Just researching)
Step 2: The Psychology of Investment
Here's the key insight: when someone spends 2-3 minutes filling out a detailed form, they're making a psychological investment. They're more likely to actually show up for the sales call because they've already put in effort.
But I didn't just add random fields. Each question served a specific purpose:
Company type immediately filtered out students and hobbyists
Team size helped prioritize leads (bigger teams = higher value)
Current tool showed they understood the space
Budget range qualified them financially
Timeline showed intent level
Step 3: Mobile-Specific Design Considerations
Just because I added more fields doesn't mean I ignored mobile UX. I made sure:
Dropdown menus were thumb-friendly and had clear options
Questions were grouped logically with clear section headers
Progress indication showed "Step 2 of 3" to set expectations
Each section fit comfortably on mobile screens
Step 4: The Results Framework
I set up tracking to measure both quantity and quality metrics:
Form submission rate (quantity)
Sales call booking rate (quality indicator)
Demo conversion rate (quality indicator)
Lead scoring based on form responses
The most important thing? I didn't optimize for form submissions. I optimized for qualified form submissions that would actually turn into customers.
Strategic Friction
Using deliberate obstacles to filter prospects and increase psychological investment in your offering
Mobile Psychology
How thumb-typing and smaller screens actually make people more intentional about form completion
Quality Metrics
Tracking conversion rates from form to customer, not just form completion rates
Sales Alignment
Ensuring form fields provide valuable context for sales conversations and lead prioritization
The results were honestly better than I expected, even knowing the psychology behind it.
Quantity Changes:
Form submissions dropped from ~15 to ~12 per month initially
But within 6 weeks, submissions climbed to ~25 per month
Mobile conversion rate went from 5% to 8.3%
Quality Improvements (This is Where It Gets Interesting):
Sales call booking rate jumped from 13% to 76%
Demo conversion rate improved from 25% to 68%
Average deal size increased by 40% (larger teams were self-selecting)
Sales cycle shortened by an average of 3 weeks
But here's the unexpected outcome: the sales team started using the form data to customize their approach for each prospect. They knew the team size, budget range, and current tools before the first call. This made their conversations much more targeted and effective.
The psychological effect was real too - prospects who filled out the longer form were more engaged during sales calls because they'd already mentally committed to the evaluation process.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
OK, so here are the key lessons I learned from this experiment - and honestly, some of these surprised me.
1. Friction Can Be a Feature, Not a Bug
The right kind of friction acts like a velvet rope at a club. It makes people want to get in more, not less. But you have to be strategic about where you add it.
2. Mobile Users Are More Intentional Than We Think
I expected mobile users to abandon the longer form, but the opposite happened. When someone pulls out their phone specifically to fill out a business form, they're already pretty committed.
3. Sales and Marketing Alignment Is Everything
This only worked because the sales team was part of the conversation. They helped design the qualifying questions and agreed on what made a "good" lead.
4. Measure What Actually Matters
Form submission rate is a vanity metric if those submissions don't convert to customers. Track the entire funnel, not just the first step.
5. Context Beats Conversion Rate
A form that gives your sales team context about each prospect is worth more than a form that just maximizes submissions.
6. Test Your Assumptions
Everything I "knew" about mobile form optimization was wrong for this specific business. Your mileage may vary.
7. Quality Attracts Quality
When you signal that you're looking for serious prospects, serious prospects respond. Tire-kickers move on to easier targets.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Add company size and current tool fields to qualify enterprise vs SMB prospects
Include budget ranges that align with your pricing tiers
Ask about implementation timeline to prioritize hot leads
Use form data to customize your product demo
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores:
Add purchase intent and budget fields for high-ticket items
Qualify custom order requests with detailed requirements
Use geographic data for shipping and tax calculations
Filter wholesale vs retail inquiries early in the process