What happened to Prospects?

[#1]

This is a GDRP issue that is easily solvable. Look at all the other competitors (EU based!) that have found a way to do it.

Coincidentally, I was just called by our sales rep at Hubspot a few minutes ago. He told me that they are using that functionality internally, as he could see what pages I was viewing as we were on the phone together. He also said that the page view functionality is still in the product, but under the Marketing module. Frankly, I didn't believe him on the idea of it being available on the Marketing module. It sounded like an up-sell opportunity to me and I quickley ended the call. 

[#2]

@CCNN the Prospects feature is still there, but they did remove it from the navigation (as far as I can tell anyway) and stopped letting us see the tracking. I had previously bookmarked it, so when I use the bookmark, I get right to it. Here's the link: https://app.hubspot.com/contacts/[YOUR HUBSPOT ID]/visits/list/view/all/? I think it's **bleep** that Hubspot is using tracking, but blocking their customers from getting the same information. Utter **bleep**.

And it was always a Sales Pro module feature, not Marketing.

[#3]

This feature was one of the main reasons why we had made the switch to Hubspot. Our CEO checks this sidebar every single day, and given it has now been removed, we are going to have to look at moving to a different provider. I understand that GDPR is to blame for this, however, we are not capturing any personally identifiable information here. If the website visitor agrees to our cookies and privacy policy then there should be no issue. Hubspot should seriously consider re-introducing this, as judging from this forum, I am not alone when I say, we need this level of intelligence.

[#4]

@Boverstreet - here's the response i got from Hubspot support regarding this topic. I still think it's ridiculous and have started looking elsewhere even though I was very happy with Hubspot up until now. 

The Prospects function now no longer shows website activity for all prospects within the tool as we have removed it, to comply with GDPR practices. This is implemented across all prospects as IP address is not a reliable identifier of a person’s actual location or citizenship e.g. if someone is using a VPN for example, it might not be their actual location.

Also, if your audience is one that frequently flies for business, there is a chance that an EU citizen being in America and not seeing the display as he/she should. An EU citizen based in Canada might also be subject to GDPR. To help our customers to be more GDPR compliant around these many possible circumstances, for the time being, we have removed the Prospects Website activity section altogether.

[#5]

@eattard I have other platforms that rely on IP address identification and when asked if GDPR would affect it like it has HubSpot they said that it is up to the customer and their privacy/cookie policy. I don't know why HubSpot couldn't leave it up to the customer as well. We do not have clients outside of the US nor do we plan on expanding outside the US so I'm not sure why HubSpot felt the need to dictate these regulations for us. 

[#6]

@eattard - I think it's interesting that they mentioned the example of the EU citizen in Canada. According to everything I've seen about GDPR, this wouldn't actually apply because the law only is for data collected in the EU. So, EU citizens aren't covered when their data is collected when they are outside of Europe. 

Source: https://www.compliancejunction.com/does-gdpr-apply-to-eu-citizens-in-the-united-states/

[#7]

So I have an update.
Apparently you can still access some of this functionality via salespro/sales starter but will obviously cost you. We've asked a few times, and apparently there are no plans to remove this from sales pro for now. I'm curious as to why no one from Hubspot has mentioned/offered this option, I only found out thank to my marketing agency who have sales pro! So, if it's still available via sales pro, then the whole GDPR argument is bullocks... seems like it's more of a money making excercise!

[#8]

Not the case in our Sales Pro account... or maybe they have geo-location blocked it from being available to EU citizens?

C.

[#9]

Not the case in our Sales Pro account... or maybe they have geo-location blocked it from being available to EU citizens?

[#10]

Hi everyone, I have since signed up to Netfactor's Visitortrack and it's fantastic! I highly recommend it. Still using Hubspot for our marketing automation and as a CRM (for now).

[#11]

I'm sorry, between the large number of CRM bugs and missing features, removing this feature is an additional step backward.

We just implemented the CRM functionality within the past month and were delighted to see that HubSpot incorporated LeadLander-like functionality -- and now it is nearly useless. Seeing which pages are drawing attention (by prospect account) and NOT converting is an important data point for our Marketing team.

The activities of already-engaged/known contacts are interesting, but they are a tiny fraction of total site traffic. I understand that Google knows how to aggregate Analytics data without running afoul of GDPR -- what makes them unique?

[#12]

This update not only reads horrible (riddled with spelling and grammatical errors), it doesn't make any sense?  I'm starting to lose faith in Hubspot.  

[#13]

This was a big blow to us as well. Infact it was one of the buying points when we signed up for the marketing pro plan. We used this fetaure extensively with our Sales team. We are extremely dissappointed and considering canceling our account.

[#14]

Hola a todos.

Entiendo que el tema del GDPR al principio de bastante miedo a la hora de recoger datos en Europa, pero como D.P.O. de algunas compañías en Europa y en proceso de certificación, puedo indicaros que para los prospectos se tendría que solucionar de una forma clara y transparente por parte del responsable del tratamiento de los datos y dejar al encargado que esa funcionalidad la deje como posibilidad  on/off. 

Entiendo que Hubspot no puede dejar la funcionalidad abierta a todos sus usuarios, ya que depende de la empresa responsable del tratamiento de esos datos el que acepten sus usuarios una política de cookies bien esplicada y mencionando las cookies de hubspot dentro de su página web. 

Por consiguiente si la empresa europea responsable de los datos  indica en sus cookies que utiliza cookies de hubspott para el tratamiento de sus usuarios y que si navega por su web puede ser recopilada su ip, de forma seudomizada.  En este caso tanto la empresa Europea como Hubspot pueden utilizar todas las funcionalidades de los prospectos.

Si por el contrario en la web de la empresa Europea no se hace mención de forma clara a esas cookies,  Hubspot no puede dejarle ver dicha funcionalidad.

Espero que esto aclare un poco el tema y se pueda recuperar la funcionalidad quitada, con un simple acepto a cumplir dichas normas de transparencia.

Un saludo.

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Hello everyone.


I understand that the issue of the GDPR at the beginning of quite scary when it comes to collecting data in Europe, but as D.P.O. of some companies in Europe and in the process of certification, I can tell you that for the prospects it would have to be solved in a clear and transparent way by the person in charge of processing the data and let the manager leave that functionality as a possibility on / off .

I understand that Hubspot can not leave the functionality open to all its users, since it depends on the company responsible for the treatment of this data that their users accept a well-explained cookie policy and mentioning the hubspot cookies within their website.

Therefore, if the European company responsible for the data indicates in its cookies that it uses cookies from hubspott for the treatment of its users and that if it navigates through its website its ip can be collected, in a pseudomised form. In this case both the European company and Hubspot can use all the features of the prospects.


If on the contrary on the website of the European company there is no clear mention of these cookies, Hubspot can not let you see such functionality.


I hope this clarifies the subject a bit and can recover the functionality removed, with a simple agreement to comply with these transparency standards.


A greeting.

[#15]

This was a tool we used daily.  Not having it really limits the value of the tool from a sales perspective.  

[#16]

So today's Daily Prospects Digest email only shows companies and not even the number of pages viewed.  Is this yet another change?

[#17]

Yes I noticed this too - has anyone received a response from Hubspot regarding this?

[#18]

Hi.
As you can see, we all have the same problem and they took it away because of the GDPR. As I indicated in my previous publication, this has an easy solution with the GDPR.
But I think they're afraid to activate it.

[#19]

Tracking visitors is the main reason we use HubSpot. We have a paid account, and this has been a very powerful tool.

HubSpot folks: I have been a brand advocate for you, recommending you to many of my own customers, who are also business people seeking business solutions. This has been one of the main features that brings value. I will start working with our marketing company to find an alternate now, but if you bring back this piece, it will make our life easier.

Thanks,

[#20]

I am also disappointed that the page views are gone in prospects.  Like the rest of the feedback you are getting, I am really tired of HubSpot taking away features that we use ALL the time.  Another example was the ability to go to a website and see demographic data on the company based on the domain.  

Hubspot is making the software less attractive to me by the day.  When I am asked if we want to use our corporate platform of Act-On and Dynamics CRM, I have less reasons to stay with Hubspot.  

We use SalesPro and it still does not work.  In addition, Prospects in the new menu format does not load ANY data on our account. 

Really, really tired of this. 

[#21]

Before implmenting Hubspot, we used Leadlander, which shows prospects, page views and individual pages visited in a drop-down menu for about $299 per month (on a month-to-month basis). This feature was stressed as one of our must-haves and our Hubspot sales person gauranteed that all LeadLander functionaility AND MORE was included.

I got support on the line today (03/27/19) and was informed this was removed in 2018.

So, my rep either didn't know or just flat-out lied... either way, this is incredibly bad form.

[#22]

Hello, we just signed up with Hubspot and being able to be informed which companies (with static IP addresses) was a key driver for our decision to sign up for an annual contract.   This requirement was clearly communicated during the sales process. 

Do we understand correctly that HS does NOT display the name of the COMPANIES with fixed IP addresses? The only information we can find is data of the ISP - which is useless.

I really hope we don't understand the prospect tool correctly! 

[#23]

I'm so disappointed. We're currently testing HubSpot and this was one of the coolest "Wow" features that got our leadership team even interested in considering spending the money on HubSpot. It seems to be an incredible piece of info that you can use to make an introduction into an account. Sad to see it go and I hope that HubSpot will consider bringing it back.

[#24]

We are also very disappointed by this feature being taken away. Hubspot, please consider bringing it back, at least for US users, if anything.

[#25]

Look into products such as LeadLander.  They provide this level of detail and more at an affordable price.

[#26]

I agree that LeadLander is a valid option.  We had canceled LeadLander when we implemented HubSpot since the functionality in HS was 'close enough.'

And now that modest incremental cost savings (which was part of our HubSpot justification) has evaporated. Live and learn, I suppose.

[#27]

It's amazing how Hubspot keeps removing very useful features and comes up with lengthy excuses.

Maybe after adding services you're next big move might be ERP? 

[#28]

As a comany, we recently made the decision to invest in Hubspot sales and marketing and move to the platform. The prospects tool was a key feature for us as we had also been looking at platforms such as lead forensics which provided a similiar service, IP address tracking and the ability to view which pages have been viewed, however, we went for Hubspot as this feature was included in the platform. 

This has now been removed and cites that due to data privacy laws they can't show activity of 'individual contacts' in the sidebar. I appreciate that personal activity not being shown is due to GDPR, however, Hubspot have removed which pages they have visited at comapny level so we can't even see which pages have been visited even if the contact is anonymised. This would not fall under GDPR. The tool is now completely worthless as it gives zero insight. 

Hunspot's generic repsonse is not satisfactory. They used this feature to sell in the platform and have now removed it. 

[#29]

Removing the pages viewed has made this tool completely useless to us. Sure, we can see if a new company visited our page, but we have NO perception of what services they are inerested in - making it impossible to vet out who could be a potential customer and who is not.  

[#30]

I agree with others on this post. HubSpot initially claimed GDPR regulations as the basis for this change and then follow-up a week later with the post about "Low Usage" and "Mixed Feedback" as a way to further justify the change. I fail to understand how "Low Usage" is quantified, and even then, how difficult it would have been to leave the feature in. If GDPR applied to the customer or they didn't want to see anonymous traffic HubSpot could have used a toggle switch to enable or disable instead. That way we can decide if it is important or not.