GMC lead types and commercial hand-offs
readiness labels + governed lifecycle stages
Cold, warm, and hot describe current readiness. IQL, MQL, SQL, and AQL are auditable lifecycle stages. A person can be both warm and an IQL, but has only one current governed stage.
01Cold lead / prospectMatches a target audience but has no recent inbound or engagement signal.
Sales outbound → Marketing nurture
02Warm leadShows recent interest through an enquiry, referral, webinar, response, or return visit.
Marketing + Sales nurture
03Hot leadHigh-intent lead with a near-term course/RPL need; Score ≥70 and Grade A/B.
Inbound course adviser · priority SLA
04IQL · Information QualifiedHas exchanged details for a GMC guide, webinar, checklist, or eligibility information.
Marketing owns consent + education
05MQL · Marketing QualifiedMeets the shared threshold: Lead Score ≥50, Grade A/B, valid consent and contact details.
Marketing → Sales acceptance
06SQL · Sales QualifiedSales confirms need, course/RPL fit, timeframe, contactability, and a recorded next action.
Sales → consultation / proposal
07AQL · Assessment QualifiedGMC-specific replacement for a SaaS “PQL”: an evaluator confirms preliminary eligibility or evidence readiness.
Evaluator → Sales close / nurture
Marketing / DemandCreates IQLs, maintains nurture, records source, consent, score, and the MQL hand-off.
Inbound Course AdvisersRespond to warm/hot MQLs, qualify need, and record accepted/rejected SQL outcomes.
Outbound & ReactivationWorks cold prospects, dormant leads, incomplete applications, and lapsed opportunities.
Evaluators & ExpansionConfirm AQL readiness; Completions/Account teams create referral, alumni, and upsell paths.
Deal
One unique commercial transaction in Zoho. A deal is counted once when it reaches the signed-off Closed Won stage; course lines and payments are separate dimensions.
Owner: Sales Ops · Source: Zoho CRM
Deals sold vs target
Closed-won deals in the selected period divided by the approved company target. The card also shows the remaining gap and end-of-period forecast.
Formula: deals sold ÷ target · Owner: Founder / Sales
Prospect
A person or organisation Sales is actively pursuing who has not yet met the signed-off qualified-lead definition.
Owner: Sales · Source: Zoho CRM
Warm lead
A known lead with recent intent or engagement—such as an enquiry, webinar attendance, content response, reactivation signal, or referral—that merits prioritised follow-up.
Owner: Marketing + Sales · Definition requires sign-off
Cold lead / cold prospect
A contact without a recent inbound or engagement signal. Cold status describes readiness, not quality, and should never be inferred only from age.
Owner: Sales · Source: Zoho activity
Hot lead
A lead with a GMC Lead Score of at least 70 and a Fit Grade of A or B, indicating both near-term intent and a likely course or RPL match.
Owner: Sales · SLA: priority response
IQL
Information Qualified Lead: a known person who exchanges details for GMC information such as a course guide, webinar, checklist, or eligibility resource.
Owner: Marketing · Stage before MQL
MQL
Marketing Qualified Lead: valid and consented contact details, Lead Score of at least 50, and Fit Grade A or B. It is ready for a recorded Sales acceptance decision.
Owner: Marketing → Sales · Source: Zoho + engagement events
SQL
Sales Qualified Lead: a Sales-accepted MQL with confirmed need, preliminary course/RPL fit, realistic timeframe, contactability, and a dated next action.
Owner: Sales · Source: Zoho disposition
AQL
Assessment Qualified Lead: GMC’s industry-specific equivalent of a generic Product Qualified Lead. An evaluator has confirmed preliminary RPL eligibility or evidence readiness.
Owner: Evaluator / QA · Dependency: Sales
Lead score
A 0–100 measure of observed intent. GMC awards points for enquiries, eligibility forms, fee/enrolment activity, webinars, replies, return visits, and downloads, then applies inactivity decay.
Owner: Marketing Ops · Formula governed company-wide
Lead grade
An A–D measure of fit based on course match, experience/evidence readiness, timeframe, payment readiness, serviceability, contactability, consent, and decision readiness.
Owner: Sales Ops + Evaluator · A ≥80, B 65–79, C 45–64, D <45
GMC Quality Index
A comparison index calculated as 60% Lead Score plus 40% fit points. The underlying score and grade must always remain visible so the index cannot hide high-intent/low-fit leads.
Formula: 0.60 × score + 0.40 × fit points
GMC commercial team types
Marketing/Demand creates and nurtures IQLs and MQLs; Inbound Course Advisers work warm/hot hand-offs; Outbound & Reactivation works cold or dormant demand; Evaluators and Expansion teams confirm AQL, referral, and upsell readiness.
Shared owners: Marketing, Sales, Evaluators, Completions, Account Management
Paid inbound
A lead who enters through paid media such as Meta, Google, or LinkedIn. Campaign, landing page, and UTM values must persist through to the deal.
Owner: Marketing · Sources: ad platforms + Zoho
Organic inbound
A lead who initiates contact through unpaid search, content, direct website activity, organic social, or an unpaid webinar path.
Owner: Marketing · Source: web/content attribution
Nurture
Marketing nurture builds intent before hand-off through content, email, and webinars. Sales nurture advances a known lead through follow-up, objection handling, or reactivation.
Owner: Marketing before hand-off · Sales after hand-off
Referral
A new opportunity introduced by a student, alumni member, partner, or existing customer. The referring person and owner must be stored on the deal.
Owner: Completions / Customer Service · Source: Zoho
Upsell
An additional course or service sold to an existing student or customer. It is distinct from a referral because the buyer is already in the customer base.
Owner: Completions · Source: Zoho + LMS
Deposit received
A settled initial payment against a contracted deal. It does not mean paid in full and must remain visible separately from future instalments.
Owner: Finance · Source: Stripe/accounting
Instalment plan
A contracted payment schedule with more than one payment. Reporting separates instalments due, received, failed, overdue, and remaining.
Owner: Finance · Source: Stripe/accounting + Zoho
Gross contracted revenue
Total AUD deal value for closed-won transactions before refunds, merchant fees, delivery costs, payroll, tax, and overhead.
Owner: Finance · Source: Zoho CRM
Cash collected
Settled cash actually received in the selected period. It excludes invoices raised, failed payments, and future instalments.
Owner: Finance · Source: Stripe/accounting
ROAS
Return on Ad Spend: attributed gross revenue divided by advertising spend. A 4.08x ROAS means A$4.08 of attributed revenue for each A$1 of ad spend.
Owner: Marketing + Finance · Draft until attribution sign-off
Review generation
The governed process of requesting, recording, responding to, and maintaining Trustpilot and Google reviews at appropriate student milestones.
Owner: Customer Service · Dependencies: Completions + Marketing
Bottleneck
The current constraint limiting throughput or decision quality. Every action plan should state which bottleneck it is expected to clear.
Owner: accountable department head · Source: Ninety issues/actions
Dependency
A person, team, system, approval, or prerequisite outside the action owner’s direct control that must be available for delivery.
Owner: action owner · Source: Ninety / project tracking