I mostly use something like

my $sqlstmt = <<SQL_A;   
    select count(col1) from table1 
    where col1 = ? and col2 = ? and col3 = ?
SQL_A
[download]

If the SQL statement gets really big I would consider wrapping it into a sub, aka

my $sqlstmt = def_sql_a;

sub def_sql_a {
return <<SQL_A;
    select count(col1) from table1 
    where col1 = ? and col2 = ? and col3 = ?
SQL_A
}
[download]

This is also consistent with hiding the gory details in a sub when creating "dynamic" SQL statements.