Sales & Conversion
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
Last year, I was brought in as a freelance consultant for a B2B SaaS that was drowning in signups but starving for paying customers. Their metrics told a frustrating story: lots of new users daily, most using the product for exactly one day, then vanishing. Almost no conversions after the free trial.
The marketing team was celebrating their "success" — popups, aggressive CTAs, and paid ads were driving signup numbers up. But I knew we were optimizing for the wrong thing.
While everyone preaches reducing friction and making signups easier, I did the opposite. I made signing up harder. The result? Same signup volume, but dramatically higher conversion rates.
Here's what you'll learn from this counterintuitive approach:
Why easier signups often lead to worse customers
The specific friction I added and why it worked
How to identify if your trial signup process is too easy
When to use friction strategically vs. when to remove it
The exact framework I use to optimize trial funnels
This isn't about making things difficult for the sake of it. It's about understanding that quality users beat quantity every single time.
Reality Check
What most SaaS founders get wrong about trial signups
Walk into any SaaS conference and you'll hear the same advice repeated like gospel: "Reduce friction! Simplify your forms! Make signup as easy as possible!" The conventional wisdom looks something like this:
Single-step signup forms: Ask only for email, maybe name. Everything else can come later
No credit card required: Remove any barrier that might scare users away
Aggressive CTAs everywhere: Multiple signup buttons, exit-intent popups, sticky headers
Social proof overload: "Join 50,000+ users" badges to create FOMO
Time-limited trials: Create urgency to force quick decisions
This advice exists because it works — for certain metrics. You'll definitely get more signups. Your marketing team will hit their MQL targets. Your CEO will see growing user numbers.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls apart: it optimizes for the wrong thing.
The problem with easy signups is that they attract everyone, including people who:
Have no real intention of using your product
Aren't your target customer
Signed up on a whim and forgot about it immediately
Are just browsing, not seriously evaluating
Most companies realize this too late, after they've spent months nurturing leads who were never going to convert. The focus on signup volume creates a false sense of progress while the real metric — trial to paid conversion — stays stubbornly low.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
When this particular client brought me in, they had all the classic symptoms of "easy signup syndrome." Their landing pages were conversion-optimized masterpieces with single-field email capture, no credit card requirements, and multiple CTAs per page.
The numbers looked impressive at first glance:
300+ new signups per week
2.4% landing page conversion rate
Growing email list of trial users
But dig deeper and the real story emerged:
85% of users never completed onboarding
90% were inactive after day one
Trial to paid conversion was hovering around 0.8%
Like most product consultants, I started with the obvious solution: improve the onboarding experience. We built an interactive product tour, simplified the UX, reduced friction points. The engagement improved marginally, but the core problem remained untouched.
That's when I realized we were treating symptoms, not the disease. The issue wasn't what happened after signup — it was who was signing up in the first place.
The client came from a B2B software background where acquisition volume had always been the key metric. They were applying B2C growth tactics to a B2B product that required serious evaluation and commitment.
Most users were signing up from cold traffic — paid ads and SEO. They had no context about the product, no understanding of the problem it solved, and no real intention of changing their current workflow. The aggressive conversion tactics meant anyone with a pulse and an email address could sign up.
The client initially pushed back when I suggested making signup harder. "You want us to get fewer signups?" But I wasn't after fewer signups. I was after better signups.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Instead of following conventional wisdom, I implemented what I call "strategic friction" — deliberately adding barriers that filter out unqualified users while attracting serious prospects.
Here's exactly what I changed:
Step 1: Added Credit Card Requirements Upfront
Yes, this scared some people away. That was the point. Users who aren't willing to add a credit card for a free trial probably aren't serious buyers. The ones who do add their card have skin in the game.
Step 2: Extended the Qualification Process
Instead of a single email field, I created a multi-step form that asked:
Company size and type
Current solution they're using
Specific use case they want to solve
Timeline for implementation
Step 3: Implemented "Prove Your Commitment" Gates
Rather than instant access, users had to:
Watch a 3-minute product demo
Schedule an optional onboarding call
Confirm their email with a detailed welcome sequence
Step 4: Repositioned the Trial as Exclusive
Instead of "Start your free trial now!" the messaging became "Apply for your strategic trial." This shifted the dynamic from us chasing users to users earning access.
The beauty of this approach was that it didn't actually prevent anyone from signing up. Every barrier could be overcome in under 5 minutes. But those 5 minutes filtered out users who weren't serious while making qualified prospects more engaged.
We also created escape hatches for users who balked at the process — a simpler "product tour" option that still captured leads but set different expectations.
The key insight here connects to the broader principle of product-market fit: your signup process should mirror your sales process. If your product requires consideration and commitment, your trial should too.
Qualification Framework
A systematic approach to identify high-intent prospects before they access your product, saving onboarding resources for users likely to convert
Psychology Shift
Changed user perception from "free trial" to "exclusive access," making the opportunity feel more valuable and increasing engagement
Credit Card Gate
Required payment details upfront, ensuring users have purchase authority and are serious about evaluation, not just browsing
Multi-Step Validation
Extended qualification process that educated prospects while filtering out unqualified leads, improving trial quality dramatically
The results spoke louder than any conversion optimization playbook:
Quantitative Changes:
Signups dropped from 300 to 280 per week (6.7% decrease)
Trial completion rate jumped from 15% to 68%
Day-1 user activity increased from 10% to 71%
Trial to paid conversion went from 0.8% to 4.2%
Qualitative Improvements:
Support tickets became actual product questions, not "how do I log in?"
Sales team spent time with qualified prospects instead of chasing ghosts
Product feedback became more actionable and relevant
The most surprising result? Customer satisfaction scores improved. Users who made it through the qualification process felt the product was "exactly what they were looking for" rather than "interesting but not quite right."
Within three months, monthly recurring revenue increased by 340% despite slightly fewer signups. The math was simple: fewer leads × higher quality × better conversion = significantly more revenue.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this across multiple SaaS clients, here's what I learned about strategic friction:
Friction filters, but it also educates. Users who complete a qualification process understand your product better and have more realistic expectations.
The best users expect some barriers. Serious B2B buyers are suspicious of products that seem "too easy" to access.
Your sales team will love you. Qualified trials mean better conversations and higher close rates. Sales velocity improves dramatically.
Support costs plummet. When users are invested in the process, they're more likely to actually read documentation and follow onboarding steps.
Product feedback becomes valuable. Engaged users provide insights that actually help improve the product.
Not all friction is created equal. The key is adding meaningful friction that serves a purpose, not arbitrary obstacles.
Test incrementally. Don't implement all changes at once. Add one barrier, measure results, then decide whether to add more or pull back.
The biggest mistake I see companies make is treating all website visitors the same. Your trial signup should be a qualifying conversation, not a data capture form. When you respect your prospects' time and your product's value, both your metrics and your business improve.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS companies looking to implement strategic friction:
Require credit card for trials if your ACV > $1000/year
Add company size/role qualifiers to filter enterprise vs SMB
Use progressive profiling to build detailed prospect profiles
Position trials as "strategic evaluations" rather than "free access"
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce brands considering friction in their funnel:
Use account creation requirements for high-value or B2B products
Implement email verification for wholesale/trade accounts
Add qualification questions for custom or consulting services
Gate premium content behind meaningful contact forms