Today, Community Cloud launches Lightning Partner Community, delivering a fast and intelligent solution for companies looking to accelerate sales from their partner ecosystem. Lightning Partner Community enables businesses to arm resellers, franchisees, channel teams and more with the same tools that make their own direct sales force successful. This news represents not just an evolution in partner management, but a revolution in partner relationships.

Deliver a Best-in-Class Partner Experience

Establishing an empowered partner ecosystem has become imperative for companies looking to drive their growth, as partners can deliver the expertise and scale necessary to expand into global markets and industries. In fact, according to Accenture, an average of 70 percent of sales come from channel partners. However, most companies are disconnected from the partner ecosystems that represent them and have no way to manage all the different types of partners they work with. Partners typically manage their businesses in a completely separate system where users have to search across multiple channels to find the right information and register deals, all without mobile access—creating a massive gap in what their sales could be

Introducing Lightning Partner Community: Supercharging your Partner Ecosystem

The new Lightning Partner Community enables companies to turn partners into an extension of their own direct sales team by giving them a single place to identify opportunities, track progress and close deals. The new Lightning Partner Community includes:

• Lightning Partner Experience allows companies to deliver a personalized and branded modern user experience across any device, ensuring each partner’s experience is tailored to their size or industry. For example, a health insurance reseller can now access key information about family plans, billing and covered providers in one location, whether on a desktop or mobile phone, creating a simple, more efficient sales experience.

• Unified Partner Platform extends CRM records—including leads, opportunities, accounts and knowledge articles—workflows, Lightning reports and dashboards, and CPQ to partners, giving them a one-stop-shop for everything they need to close deals. For example, a software reseller can now easily track their deals from lead-to-cash—identify the best opportunities, monitor progress and negotiate pricing configuration—enabling them to close deals faster and in one place.

• Salesforce Einstein for Partner Community surfaces recommended posts, knowledge articles and experts to enable partners to sell faster and smarter. For example, if a franchise owner is looking to expand their restaurant business, they’re bound to encounter a few questions along the way—everything from distance between locations to promotional offers and staffing ratios. Salesforce Einstein is able to recommend articles and experts in the community who can answer their questions, enabling the franchisee to grow their business as seamlessly as possible.

Please check out our guided tour to learn more about how Community Cloud and Lightning Partner Community can accelerate your channel sales.