I smashed my Apple quota. They raised it 50%. Then again.

Getting that call that I was going to work for Apple was one of the most exciting moments for me. It was Red Deer, Alberta, at the Best Buy, May 2011 to August 2012. It started part time, at a similar salary to what I was making at my parents’ paper shredding and recycling company.

Shortly after arriving in Cupertino, California, I met the only other part-time Solutions Consultant. He was making 20K more a year than me. I immediately knew I had failed in negotiation. In fact, I didn’t negotiate my salary at all!

During that trip I met experienced sellers who told me, “You’re going to smash that quota unless you are careful.” I thought it was odd that they didn’t want to sell as many as possible. I’m not that kind of guy. I work as hard as I can and I find solutions to make things possible.

Within the first three months I had hit my quota and then some. My manager then gave me a new quota that was 50% higher than the last. Now I understood what those veteran salespeople meant. But like a good soldier, I found ways to hit it and smash it. I beat the quota. Then it happened again. And again.

I was doing crazy things like analyzing foot traffic. I changed my days off to Sunday and Wednesday to optimize my time in the store.

Best Buy Canada and Future Shop were owned by the same company, and they were across the street from each other. There was another Apple Solutions Consultant across the street who made MUCH more than I did. I ended up taking most of their store’s business. He never made quota again, and they closed his store. After I left they moved him to my location, and even though he had been with Apple for many years, he sold fewer computers than ever before. He ended up getting fired for missing quota a few quarters in a row. His numbers were so far worse than mine that his performance was obvious.

After about 15 months I was still hitting quota, but this time I barely made it. That included partnerships with oil companies who bought many devices for prizes. I had maxed out foot traffic. The store won Best in Canada, and the store managers loved me for bringing millions into the store. They treated me like one of their managers, and trust was high.

I told my manager that if they increased my quota again, it wouldn’t be possible to hit it. I was expecting a 10% increase. Again they raised it by 50%, “to motivate me.”

They sent it by email. I was still living in my dad’s basement, reading it on my 27″ iMac. I was angry. But I had guessed it would happen.

Here’s the thing. From the start my base salary was 20K lower than anyone else’s. I was now full time, working for less than any other ASC and outperforming everyone in Canada. And my commission bonuses were small, because my quota was so high.

So I had been using my leave once a week to do my prerequisite internship in a combined Grade 1-2 class in Calgary. That way, when it happened, I was ready to move to the next phase. I sold my Jeep, a 2005 Jeep Rubicon in Impact Orange, to fund the next two years of school.

I sent my notice by email: a 10-page document explaining everything, and why I was quitting. I didn’t bother sending it to just my direct manager. I sent it to HR, the director and my manager all at once. My manager didn’t care. The director did. He asked if they could make it right. He said he could tell I had put a lot of thought into it, which I had. Funny thing, it had a lot of spelling errors, because Apple’s dang spell checker sucked!

But it was too late. I had already been accepted into the education program at the University of Lethbridge. I had given up on my dream of living in the United States, and teaching in Canada was a decent job that paid more than working for Apple under those conditions. Plus, I loved physics.

If I hadn’t had those experiences, I wouldn’t have mastered sales, and that set me up for my next win: Chrome Academy. That’s a story for another time. I brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to a school and gave every kid a Chromebook through a loophole in the Alberta school funding system.

Now I always negotiate. I always negotiate for more, and I do my best to negotiate from a place of strength.