The XL'ing Discovery Blog

Whether it's partner strategy, program design, or recruiting the right partners into your ecosystem - all those layers that come with it (stakeholder alignment, program management, content creation, campaign optimization, success measurement) all need equal attention to detail to understand what makes partnerships last. 

Like my mom always says, “Get in where you fit in.” That phrase has echoed through my life and career, and it’s never been truer than in the world of marketing and business growth.

As partner ecosystems head into 2026, the consolidation pressure and AI ROI questions he outlines are no longer theoretical—they’re operational realities.

Having worked across AWS, Splunk, and Intel partner programs since 2020, I’ve seen one consistent pattern: mid‑market partners don’t win by outspending. They win by getting systematic.

Let's be real. Without a centralized starting place, your go-to-market efforts will underperform, and you and your teams will feel it. Read on to learn 5 practical approaches to creating a value proposition that brings your teams together and drives high quality, high volum lead generation.

See what I learned helping emerging technology cloud partners navigate the AI wave—and my POV on how partnering with a strategic marketing consultant and advisor creates a naturally, and strategically, occuringreturn on investment helps create ease of doing business across lines of business (LOBs), within your organization, and with your partners.

I've learned that being intentional with what you invest and how you invest, makes or breaks the quality of business, engagements, and success. 

If you are a business leader, founder, or owner navigating the complexities that come with maintaining a holistic growth mindset and business growth, I encourage you to read this article.

MSP! Hold it down! You're so much more than a service provider. I can definitely relate to the struggle of being semi-invisible in your channel but packing the mightiest punch and bringing immense value. Regardless, positioning is a core issue. 

As I continue to immerse myself in the MSP world, I continuously learn why and how this industry is leading the charge in tech, The MSP network and community has built something remarkable, and the opportunity in front of it right now is just as remarkable.

This article connects the M&A signal and the staffing shift to the ExSailIQ MSP Business Growth Flywheel, a practical six-stage system for continuous value demonstration, so you can see where your GTM is strong, where it needs improvement, and what to build next to create incremental and compounding business growth.

After working with industry and innovation leading EXPERTS at globally scaled technology companies including AWS for the past five (5) and a half years (1/2) and working with their strategic partner networks who have signed strategic collaboration agreements, I can confirm that there is a formula.

After almost six years inside the strategic alliances and partner marketing programs of leading cloud, industrial, and security software companies — including AWS, Splunk, and AspenTech, I've learned that having a passion-focused perspective on your work can be lucrative no matter the field. 

Creative and Writer's block. We've all heard it. Many of us use the terminology. I think it's a bit of a cop out, unless you are truly ignorant. We default to "block" as if it's some sort of natural instinctive "phenomenon" that happens. But when you dig into it, you begin to understand that block is rooted in conditions and circumstances that cause your being to naturally react in protection mode. That's the block. Read on to ingest my honest take on creative and writer's block.

I was burnt out almost all of 2025. Although I am not a fan of how many people and companies utilize AI, I am in favor of it for at the very least, content production, research, and brainstorming. It helped me through some of my hardest times in this latter part of my career where I was burnt out and couldn’t think without brain fog.

After working with industry and innovation leading EXPERTS at globally scaled technology companies including AWS for the past five (5) and a half years (1/2) and working with their strategic partner networks who have signed strategic collaboration agreements, I can confirm that there is a formula.

If you want to motivate your team to produce better revenue and more profit-forward business results, don't give them pizza parties, give them Deal Forensics.