# Determining & Setting SQL Lifecycle from MQL

**URL:** <https://community.hubspot.com/t/determining-setting-sql-lifecycle-from-mql/113118>\
**Category:** Tips, Tricks & Best Practices\
**Tags:** crm, professional, best-practices\
**Created:** [July 29, 2024, 7:58am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/determining-setting-sql-lifecycle-from-mql/113118 "2024-07-29T07:58:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rysk100](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Rysk100](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Rysk100)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 7:58am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/determining-setting-sql-lifecycle-from-mql/113118/1 "2024-07-29T07:58:29Z")

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It would seem from Hubspot’s recommended lead statuses they envisage that a seller wouldn’t update any statuses prior to entering the SQL lifecycle as the first stage is ‘New’

If this is Hubspot’s recommended practice then the SQL lifecycle stage is best to be triggered on a workflow by the seller just updating the property ‘‘lead status’’ to ‘‘New’’  
If the seller doesn’t accept the lead, the lead status remains unpopulated and thus within the MQL lifecycle stage

Is that right?

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**Author:** ![kvlschaefer](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/kvlschaefer/32/71076_2.png) [@kvlschaefer](https://community.hubspot.com/u/kvlschaefer)\
**Post date:** [July 29, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/determining-setting-sql-lifecycle-from-mql/113118/2 "2024-07-29T17:56:23Z")

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Hi @Rysk100,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and for kicking off this discussion!  
Would you be able to provide more details on your sales process? Do your users (sellers) have the option to assign themselves leads? Would you mind sharing your goal with the community? By providing more context on your current setup, the better we can offer personalized advice.  
Thank you,  
Kristen

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rysk100](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@Rysk100](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Rysk100)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 6:51am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/determining-setting-sql-lifecycle-from-mql/113118/3 "2024-07-30T06:51:18Z")

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We are a small post series A start up at the GTM phase. Currently one seller, soon to be 2.  
I envisage that all leads that submit a demo form will automatically be marketing qualified, leads that come via a gated content asset will be a lead until they reach a certain score and will then be passed through to the sellers.  
Yes, sellers could assign themselves leads but the whole point of having Hubspot as a CRM and markerting automation is to do this via workflow automation

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RichReed](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/richreed/32/49011_2.png) [@RichReed](https://community.hubspot.com/u/RichReed)\
**Post date:** [July 30, 2024, 8:50am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/determining-setting-sql-lifecycle-from-mql/113118/4 "2024-07-30T08:50:26Z")

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This part of the lifecycle mapping is the most flexible and will depend on your sales process and volume of enquiries.

I agree with your approach around lifecyle stages:

- Lead = User who has downloaded content on your website
- MQL = User who has filled in a form with sales intent (demo form)
- SQL = An MQL who the sales team has marked as a good fit. This can be done manually or through a workflow that can look at the company information and automatically mark them as a SQL (company size, industry, location etc)
- Opportunity = User who has an associated deal (this is usually when a discovery call is booked in)

Lots of businesses skip the SQL stage and move from MQL into Opportunity as their pipeline starts at discovery call. If you’d prefer that there is more qualification and feedback on the MQLs before they move into the deal stage, then I’d recommend using SQL + lead status properties to manage this process.