The Scenario
You are a revenue ops manager. It is the first Monday of May and 800 new inbound MQLs landed over the weekend from a trade show form and two webinar signups. They are in an Excel workbook on the Imports tab, with columns for email, first name, company, and the ID of the sales rep they have been pre-assigned to.
You need a new Instantly lead list called 'May MQLs', every lead added, and each lead assigned to the correct rep — before the weekly pipeline review at 2 PM.
The bad version:
- Log into Instantly
- Create the lead list manually
- Start the import flow, upload a CSV from the workbook
- Realize Instantly does not bulk-assign reps through the import UI
- Assign each rep one at a time after import
- It is 1:45 PM and you have assigned 200 of 800 leads.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI creates the list and pushes every lead with their rep assignment from the workbook in a single operation.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Create a new Instantly lead list called 'May MQLs', then add all leads from the Imports tab (columns: email, first_name, company, assigned_rep_id) and assign each lead to the rep whose ID is in the assigned_rep_id column. Write 'added + assigned' or the error into column E.
SheetXAI creates the list, adds each lead, assigns the rep, and writes a result to column E. By 2 PM the list is ready and every rep's queue is populated.
What You Get
A fully populated Instantly lead list with rep assignments built from 800 rows:
- 'May MQLs' list created — ready to be added to a campaign
- 800 leads added — email, first name, and company populated
- Rep assignments set — each lead routed to the correct rep
- Column E audit log — "added + assigned" for every success, error details for failures
The column E log is your QA check before the meeting.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Inbound MQL workbooks from weekend form submissions are rarely clean.
When the rep ID column has blanks
Some leads came in through a channel without a default rep.
Create the 'May MQLs' list in Instantly. For rows in the Imports tab where assigned_rep_id is blank, assign to default rep ID 'REP-DEFAULT'. For all other rows, use the assigned_rep_id column. Write results into column E.
When the same email appears more than once
The form accepted duplicate submissions over the weekend.
Deduplicate the Imports tab by email address, keeping the first occurrence. Then create the 'May MQLs' list in Instantly, add all deduplicated leads, assign each to the rep in column D, and write results into column E. Mark removed duplicates in column F.
When you want to split MQLs into two lists by source
Trade show leads go to one list, webinar leads to another. A Source column distinguishes them.
Create two Instantly lead lists from the Imports tab: 'May MQLs — Trade Show' for rows where Source is "trade show", and 'May MQLs — Webinar' for rows where Source is "webinar". Add each lead to the appropriate list with rep assignments and write the list name and result into column E.
When you need to add leads to both the new list and an existing campaign
The 'May Inbound' campaign is already set up.
Create the 'May MQLs' list in Instantly. Add all leads from the Imports tab with email, first_name, company, and assigned_rep_id. Also add each lead to campaign 'May Inbound'. Write 'list + campaign added' or the error into column E.
The pattern: create, add, assign — one prompt instead of three separate UI flows.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any inbound MQL workbook, then ask it to create the list and assign leads in Instantly. The Instantly integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For related workflows, see how to bulk-add leads to an existing campaign in Excel or the Instantly in Excel overview.