How do you architect a partner community for B2B indirect sales using Experience Cloud?

Partner Community architecture enables channel managers to manage resellers, distributors, and partners via an Experience Cloud portal:

Licensing: Partner Community licences support full CRM object access (Leads, Opportunities, Contacts) with sharing rules and role hierarchy. Partner users are external users with their own profile and role in the Partner Community role hierarchy (below the internal hierarchy).

Channel Manager: An internal Salesforce user who manages one or more partner accounts. The channel manager is the bridge between internal data and partner visibility.

Partner Score: PRM (Partner Relationship Management) includes a partner scoring model that rates partner performance based on certifications, deal registrations, and revenue attainment. Displayed in the partner portal.

Deal Registration: Partners submit deal registrations (Leads/Opportunities) via the portal. Internal teams review, approve, and assign. Prevents channel conflict (two partners registering the same deal).

MDF (Market Development Funds): Partners request MDF from the portal. Approval workflows route requests to channel managers and finance. Approved funds are tracked against partner budgets.

Data sharing: Use Partner Community role hierarchy + sharing rules to ensure partners only see their own leads and opportunities. Never share cross-partner data.