Narrative Tenses in Sales Deals

• When we tell stories about deals that went wrong in Seattle or Boston, we combine three past tenses. We use past simple for completed actions, past continuous for actions in progress, and past perfect for earlier background events.
• Tense
• Form
• Use in Sales Stories
• Example
• Past Simple
• verb + -ed / irregular
• Completed main actions
• Mark signed the contract in Chicago.
• Past Continuous
• was / were + verb-ing
• Actions in progress at a moment
• We were reviewing the budget in Austin.
• Past Perfect
• had + past participle
• Actions before another past action
• They had canceled the order before we called.
• Remember
• Use past simple for the main sequence of events in your sales story.
• Use past continuous for longer background activities interrupted by short events.
• Use past perfect for what happened before the main past moment.
• Examples
• While David was speaking in Denver, the client emailed us.
• By the time Sarah arrived in Dallas, the director had already left.
• We lost the account in Phoenix because the finance team cut spending.
• Common mistakes
• When I arrived to Seattle, they already canceled the meeting.
• When I arrived in Seattle, they had already canceled the meeting.

Complete the sentences

• While we (negotiate) ____ the contract in Miami, the director called.
• By the time Kevin reached Boston, the buyers (pull out) ____ of the agreement.
• Lisa (send) ____ the revised proposal to Atlanta yesterday.
• The client (review) ____ our pricing when the new decision maker stopped them.
• Before the meeting in Orlando, the board (approve) ____ our competitor.
• Mark (talk) ____ to the account manager in New York last night.

Sources: photo by Ramesh Kambattan on Pexels