The team
This is a study abroad consultancy whose students do not all head to the same place. In one season, its counsellors file applications to the UK, several countries across mainland Europe and a few destinations further afield. Many students keep more than one option open, for example two universities in different countries, sometimes for different intakes and through different application routes.
What they needed
The team's problem was not a shortage of leads. It was keeping each application on the right path:
- Steps that change by destination. Germany needs an APS certificate. Some destinations ask for an entrance exam or an interview. A single generic status list would either hide these steps or clutter every file with steps that don't apply.
- Intake per application, not per student. A student applying for two countries may be aiming for two different intakes.
- Their own university and course catalogue, searchable by country, so counsellors stop keeping private spreadsheets.
- Interview preparation that can be tracked. For destinations that interview students, the team runs an internal assessment and mock interviews before the real one. That progress needed to live on the student's record, not in chat threads.
- Clear document requirements and deadlines at each stage, with warnings before anything slips.
- A record of how each file is submitted, whether direct or through a partner.
How we set up their operations on Xale
One deal for every application
Every student is a single lead, and every university application is its own deal under that lead, with its own stage, status, counsellor, payments, internal chat and custom-field values. Two applications to different countries move independently.
Destination and intake on every deal
We added required deal-level fields for destination country and intake, so each application carries its own destination and intake. An optional application route field records whether the file goes direct or through a partner.
Statuses that follow the destination
The Xale study-abroad pipeline was reshaped around the team's own flow of application, offer, payment and visa stages. We then set up country-gated statuses. Each destination-specific status is linked to one or more values of the deal's Country field:
- APS steps appear only on applications to Germany.
- Interview and entrance-exam steps appear only for the destinations that use them.
Statuses shared by every destination stay visible on all deals. A counsellor opening an application sees only that destination's steps, and a UK application never shows Germany's.
Their own university and course catalogue
Xale does not ship a pre-loaded university library, so we loaded the team's own universities and courses (bulk import from Excel is also available), each university tagged with its country. Counsellors use the Course Finder to filter by country, compare courses and save shortlists.
Interview preparation as tracks
Interview preparation runs as tracks with sub-tracks on the student's record, moving from an internal assessment through mock rounds to the final result. Automations can assign tracks, and stage requirements can ask for them before a move.
Documents and deadlines
Stage requirements can list the documents each stage needs and block the move until they are in place. Status-to-status deadlines with early-warning days sit on the deals that need them, for example from offer received to deposit submitted. A deadline closes itself when the application reaches the target status, and who can set or complete one is controlled per role.
Roles, follow-ups and reports
Each deal has one active owner per role, with every reassignment kept in the ownership history. Follow-ups are role-based: each role on a lead or deal keeps its own follow-up, grouped into calendar-day Overdue, Today and Later, with due reminders by web popup, mobile push and inbox. The Country report tab reads the deal-level Country and intake fields, the Admissions tab tracks offer, deposit and visa deal by deal, and every number opens the list of leads behind it.
How the team works day to day
A counsellor starts the day on their follow-ups, not in a spreadsheet. Opening a student shows each application as its own deal, with its destination, intake and application route on top, and only the statuses that make sense for that country. When a student asks about options, the counsellor searches the Course Finder by country and adds the chosen course as a new application.
Interview coaches update the track after each mock round, so counsellors can see who is ready without asking. Managers filter the lead list by country, intake or application route and watch deadlines nearing their warning window. Adding a new destination means adding a country option and, where needed, a few gated statuses. Nobody else's screen changes.
Why it matters for teams like theirs
For a consultancy sending students to many countries, one process is too rigid and a separate process per country is impossible to manage. Country-gated statuses, deal-level intake fields and per-application ownership handle both inside one pipeline.
- See how the product handles applications, deals and the Course Finder on the study abroad CRM page.
- Read how the study abroad industry template sets up a new workspace.
- Learn how role-based follow-up management keeps each counsellor's queue clean.
- Explore CRM reports and analytics for country and admissions reporting you can drill into.
- If your destinations are split across teams or offices, see multi-branch CRM with role-based access.