I have interviewed many salespeople over the past five years at AWS.
Unfortunately, a common mistake I see candidates make in interviews is when they continuously use a broad “we” when telling a story about an accomplishment.
An interviewer wants to learn how your unique actions advanced a sale or helped a customer achieve impactful results. You are the one getting interviewed, not your team.
My recommendation is to clarify early in your story the members of your team and their roles, then move on to describe what you did that made the difference.
Using a broad “We” generously without specifying your individual contribution is a concern the candidate is slow to take ownership and responsibility.
Using too many “I’s” without giving proper credit to the team involved is a concern the candidate likes to take undeserving praise for the results, which is an earned trust issue.
How To Fix It
The key is to balance the “we” and “I” in your story.
To achieve this, clarify who ‘we’ is and each person’s role early and as often as needed.
Next, describe your ‘I’ contributions and how they led to the ideal customer outcomes and results using a framework like the Situation Task Action Result (STAR) method.
This way, the interviewer gets a holistic view of the scope of your accomplishment, its impact on customers, and the results delivered.
Good luck in your next interview.