F**K Your Required Phone Number Field

Your Forms Are Killing Your Conversions. Here’s Why.

You know what’s worse than leads that don't convert? No leads — because your form scared them off. Let’s talk about the slow death of conversion rates at the hands of bloated, committee-approved, “just-one-more-field” web forms.

You’ve seen them. You’ve probably filled them in (or rage-closed the tab halfway through). And if you’re unlucky, your own team might be creating them. So, let’s get one thing straight:

Forms should be built by marketers.

I know, madness right? Not sales leaders. Definitely not by a group. The moment a “cross-functional team” gets involved, the form becomes a data-hungry monster with 15 fields, a dropdown with 182 countries, and a CAPTCHA that hates humans. All in the name of “better qualification.” Translation: “Let’s optimize for the pipeline report, not actual pipeline.” Sigh.

Ask Yourself: "Would I Fill This Form?" Because if the answer is “absolutely not,” why are you expecting your prospects to?

Modern B2B marketing has data enrichment, reverse IP lookups, and enough third-party tools to tell you what your lead had for breakfast.

You do not need to ask for:

• Company name (you’ll get it from their domain)
• Last Name (apart from your mum telling you off when does anyone use this?)
• Job title (unless you're a linguist, free-text titles are basically noise)
• *Required* Mobile number (want a list of fake 07s? Require it)
• Industry, revenue band, team size, shoe size, pet’s name…

"What are you saying you lunatic?!" I'm saying:

Technology can help you now, stop using the same form fields from 2015;

THAT WAS A DECADE AGO...I need you to wake up...follow the sound of my voice.

A No-Nonsense Guide to Form Fixes That Work:

• Keep it short. First name. Email. Phone (optional). That’s your MVP. Maybe one qualifying dropdown if it's a direct to book a demo form.
• Block freemail domains. Gmail, Yahoo, etc. That’ll filter most junk and enable enrichment.
• Enrich in the background. Use HubSpot built in enrichment or tools like AccountScout.
• Qualify with content, not form fields. Have your target account list identified.
• Don’t play “Gotcha.” Hidden required fields, unclear error messages, and reCAPTCHAs that ask you to spot traffic lights from 2007… they don’t inspire trust.

If randoms are filling out your demo form, your blog/ads/email are speaking to the wrong crowd — or you’ve got unexpected product-market fit. Either way, that’s a content problem, not a form problem.  

• You can still qualify these people out pre-demo.
• Do it post conversion via enrichment.

But What About Sales? Ah yes, the eternal sales rebuttal: “We need to qualify them before we talk to them!”. Yeah that's what enrichment and marketing nurture is for.

Here’s the thing: no one wants to fill out a form and feel like they’re taking an exam. And frankly, if your SDRs are allergic to talking to humans unless they’ve self-reported a budget and timeline — that’s not a marketing problem. That’s a culture problem.

Stop using your form as a filter. Use it as a door.

Let the right people walk in easily. Let the wrong people self-select out before they even get there — through targeted messaging, clear value props, and actual ICP-driven content. There are always caveats, and this framework will need to be adjusted on a case by case basis, but the theory is the same.

Because at the end of the day, a beautiful form that no one completes is just a fancy way to waste your ad budget.

Want to know which of your forms are leaking leads? Our app checks every form in your HubSpot — in seconds. No judgment, no sales call, just clear fixes. It's free to get started.