Matt Rinna
When I was 11, I was introduced to technology at my brother's time-sharing company in the 1970s. I rebuilt high-speed printer cartridges while sitting in the data center beside refrigerator-sized cabinets, spinning reel-to-reel tape.
When I asked my brother how he made money, he responded immediately and directly, "Do you see those lights flashing on the computers? The faster they blink, the more money we make." Thus began my curiosity about the computer industry, business, and revenue growth.
My sales journey began after college with Harris Lanier in San Diego, modeled after IBM sales training and methodologies. With a daily quota of 35 B2B door-to-door cold calls, I quickly learned how to survive, thrive, and accelerate into revenue/commissions.
My first foray into computer system sales was with a $10M, fast-growing operating systems developer that competed with Microsoft, which in the late 80s had only $590M in revenue. Since we were a small company, my job was to sell the solution, assemble the PC hardware, load the OS and application software, configure & program all peripherals, and deliver it to the client, where I would perform on-site training.
While at this PC operating system company, I discovered the newly emerging field of Decision Support, which, within a few years, would morph into the rapidly growing field of Business Intelligence/Analytics.
During these 17 years in BI/Analytics, I delivered quarterly revenue in almost every industry by teaching clients how to harness data. Demonstrating a hard dollar ROI to the economic buyer and their committee of approvers was key to closing deals.
I parlayed that experience into an Analytics Lead at Oracle, where I was introduced to and learned the principles of Value Selling and Account-Based Marketing.
The following year, I met my partner, Phred. We were a sales team (AE & SE) working at a $2.53 billion leader in the data warehousing sector. Together, we were top revenue producers globally.
In 2016, I transitioned to a leadership position within the consulting sector, where I excelled in fostering strategic alliances via a Business Development approach. This experience taught me the structure and fundamentals of the consulting industry, laying the foundation for the Rinna Group.