Customer & Partner Portal

The Customer and Partner Portal in SalesOS gives your external stakeholders a branded, self-service experience where they can track deal progress, access shared documents, communicate with your team, and collaborate on opportunities. Instead of relying on email chains and status update calls, your customers and partners have direct visibility into the information that matters to them.

What Is the Customer & Partner Portal?

The portal is a secure, externally-facing interface that connects to your SalesOS CRM data while showing only what each stakeholder is authorized to see. It serves two distinct audiences:

• Customers (buyers) gain transparency into their deal status, shared documents, and open requests without needing to contact their rep for updates.
• Partners (channel, referral, reseller) manage deal registrations, track referral commissions, access co-selling resources, and collaborate on joint opportunities.

Both portal types share the same underlying infrastructure but present different interfaces and data sets tailored to each audience's workflow.

Portal Types

Customer Portal

Designed for your buyers and their teams. The customer portal provides:

• Real-time deal status visibility.
• Shared document access (proposals, contracts, SOWs, technical specs).
• A communication thread with your sales team.
• Request submission (change orders, support escalation, additional quotes).
• Meeting scheduling with their assigned rep.

Customers see only their own deals and documents. They cannot view other customers' data, your internal notes, or deal financials that you have not explicitly shared.

Partner Portal

Designed for channel partners, referral partners, and resellers. The partner portal provides:

• Deal registration to claim opportunities and avoid channel conflict.
• Co-selling workspace for joint deal management.
• Referral tracking with attribution and status updates.
• Commission visibility including earned, pending, and paid amounts.
• Marketing and sales collateral library.
• Partner performance dashboard with tier status.

Partners see only deals they are associated with and general resources your team has published to the partner library.

Portal Setup and Branding

Configure portals in Settings > Portals. Setup requires Administrator or Manager permissions.

Creating a Portal

1. Navigate to Settings > Portals and click Create Portal.
2. Select the portal type: Customer or Partner.
3. Enter a portal name (e.g., "Acme Customer Hub" or "Partner Central").
4. Choose a subdomain or custom domain for the portal URL.
5. Configure branding options.
6. Set default permissions and content visibility.
7. Click Publish to make the portal accessible.

Branding Configuration

Custom Domain

By default, portals are accessible at yourcompany.salesos.app/portal. To use a custom domain:

1. Add a CNAME record pointing your chosen subdomain to portal.salesos.app.
2. Enter the custom domain in Settings > Portals > Domain.
3. SalesOS provisions an SSL certificate automatically (takes up to 15 minutes).
4. Verify the domain is active using the status indicator.

Customer Experience

When a customer logs into their portal, they see a clean, focused interface showing only their relevant information.

Viewing Deal Status

The primary dashboard displays all active deals associated with the customer's account:

• Deal name and current stage with a visual pipeline indicator.
• Expected close date and any changes since their last login.
• Deal value (if shared by your team).
• Assigned rep with photo, name, and direct message option.
• Next steps visible to the customer, pulled from the deal's shared notes.

Customers can click into any deal to see its full timeline of shared updates, without viewing your internal activities or notes marked as private.

Accessing Shared Documents

The Documents tab organizes files shared with the customer:

• Proposals and quotes with version history.
• Contracts with signing status.
• Technical documentation such as architecture diagrams, integration guides, and implementation plans.
• Presentations from previous meetings.

Documents are organized by deal and by category. Customers can download files, leave comments, and request revisions directly from the portal.

Communication Thread

Each deal includes a dedicated communication thread visible to both the customer and the assigned sales team:

• Customers post questions, feedback, or requests.
• Sales reps respond directly or tag internal team members (internal tags are not visible to the customer).
• File attachments are supported within threads.
• Email notifications alert both parties to new messages.
• Thread history persists across the deal lifecycle.

Submitting Requests

Customers can submit structured requests through the portal:

Requests create tasks in your CRM assigned to the appropriate team member, with SLA tracking and escalation rules.

Partner Experience

Partners access a more feature-rich portal designed around their revenue-generation workflow.

Deal Registration

Partners register new opportunities to establish attribution and avoid channel conflict:

1. Click Register Deal from the partner dashboard.
2. Enter the prospect company name, contact information, and estimated deal size.
3. Describe the opportunity and expected timeline.
4. Submit for approval by your channel team.

Registration statuses include:

Co-Selling Workspace

For joint opportunities, the co-selling workspace provides:

• Shared deal timeline showing activities from both your team and the partner.
• Joint task management with assignments to either organization.
• Shared documents for co-branded proposals and presentations.
• Meeting coordination with combined availability view.
• Strategy notes visible to both parties.

Referral Tracking

Partners who refer business rather than co-sell can track their referrals:

• Referral submission with prospect details.
• Status tracking from submission through deal closure.
• Automatic attribution when a referred prospect enters your pipeline.
• Referral history with outcome data (won, lost, still in pipeline).

Commission Visibility

The earnings section displays:

• Earned commissions from closed deals with payment date.
• Pending commissions from deals in final stages.
• Commission rate applicable to different deal types.
• Payment history with amounts, dates, and associated deals.
• Projected earnings based on current pipeline.

Partners can export commission reports for their own accounting.

Access Control and Permissions

Portal access is governed by fine-grained permissions that determine what each external user can see.

Customer Permissions

Partner Permissions

Configuring Permissions

Permissions can be set at three levels:

1. Portal-wide defaults -- apply to all users of a portal type.
2. Account-level overrides -- customize permissions for specific customer or partner accounts.
3. Individual user overrides -- grant or restrict access for specific people.

Portal Content Management

Administrators can publish content to portals that all authorized users can access.

Pages

Create custom pages with rich text, images, and embedded media:

• Welcome page with onboarding instructions.
• Product updates announcing new features.
• Process guides explaining how to work with your team.
• Event pages promoting webinars or partner events.

Pages support markdown formatting, image uploads, and embedded video.

Resources Library

Organize downloadable content by category:

• Sales collateral (partner portal): battle cards, one-pagers, case studies.
• Technical docs (both portals): integration guides, API documentation, architecture diagrams.
• Training materials (partner portal): certification courses, product training videos.
• Templates (both portals): RFP response templates, implementation checklists.

FAQs

Build a searchable FAQ section covering common questions:

• Organize by category (billing, technical, process, general).
• Support rich text answers with links and images.
• Track which FAQs are viewed most to identify knowledge gaps.
• Allow users to flag unhelpful answers for improvement.

Invitation and Onboarding Flow

Inviting Users

Invite external users to the portal through multiple methods:

1. Manual invitation -- Enter email addresses in Portal > Users > Invite. The user receives an email with a secure link to set their password.
2. From a deal -- When sharing a deal to the portal, SalesOS prompts you to invite the customer contacts associated with that deal.
3. Bulk import -- Upload a CSV of partner contacts to invite an entire partner organization at once.
4. Self-registration -- Optionally allow users to request access via a public registration page (requires approval).

Onboarding Experience

When a new user first logs in, the portal guides them through:

1. Account setup -- Set password, upload profile photo, confirm contact details.
2. Welcome tour -- An interactive walkthrough highlighting key features.
3. Notification preferences -- Choose which updates trigger email notifications.
4. Quick actions -- Suggested first steps based on their role (e.g., "View your active deals" for customers, "Register your first deal" for partners).

Managing Portal Users

Administrators manage portal users in Settings > Portals > Users:

• View all active, invited, and deactivated users.
• Filter by portal type, account, or status.
• Resend invitations to users who have not yet activated.
• Deactivate users who should no longer have access.
• Transfer users between accounts (e.g., when a contact changes companies).

Portal Analytics

Track portal engagement to understand how effectively your stakeholders use the self-service experience.

Engagement Metrics

Customer Health Signals

Portal engagement data feeds into account health scoring:

• High engagement (frequent logins, document views, messages) correlates with active evaluation and deal momentum.
• Declining engagement (reduced logins, no document access) may signal stalled deals or lost interest.
• Spike in activity (sudden increase in document downloads or requests) often indicates internal buying committee review.

These signals appear in your deal health dashboard and trigger automated alerts when patterns indicate risk or opportunity.

Partner Performance

The partner analytics dashboard shows:

• Deal registration volume and approval rates.
• Average time from registration to close.
• Revenue generated by partner tier.
• Collateral utilization rates.
• Partner engagement trends over time.

Integration with Deal Rooms

Portal content integrates directly with SalesOS Deal Rooms:

• Documents shared in a deal room automatically appear in the customer's portal view (if marked as customer-visible).
• Communication threads in the portal sync with deal room conversations.
• Tasks assigned to customer or partner contacts appear in their portal task list.
• Portal activity (document views, logins) is logged in the deal room timeline.

This integration ensures your team has complete visibility into customer engagement without switching between internal and external views.

SSO and Security

Authentication Options

Security Controls

• Multi-factor authentication -- Require MFA for all portal users or specific accounts.
• IP restrictions -- Limit portal access to specific IP ranges (useful for partner organizations with fixed office IPs).
• Session timeout -- Configure automatic logout after inactivity (default: 30 minutes).
• Audit logging -- All portal actions are logged with user, timestamp, IP, and action details.
• Data encryption -- All portal data is encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and at rest (AES-256).
• Access revocation -- Immediately deactivate a user to revoke all access; active sessions are terminated.

Compliance

Portal access and data sharing comply with:

• GDPR -- Users can request data export or deletion.
• SOC 2 Type II -- Portal infrastructure is included in SalesOS's SOC 2 audit scope.
• CCPA -- California users can opt out of data collection.

Best Practices

• Share early, share often. The more visibility you provide to customers through the portal, the fewer "what's the status?" emails you receive. Share deal updates proactively to build trust.
• Curate the partner collateral library. Outdated or disorganized materials reduce partner effectiveness. Review the resource library quarterly, archive old content, and highlight new additions.
• Monitor engagement signals. A customer who stops logging into the portal may be disengaging from the deal. Set up alerts for declining portal activity and follow up promptly.
• Keep permissions minimal by default. Start with conservative permissions and expand access per-account as relationships deepen. It is easier to grant additional access than to revoke it.
• Brand the portal thoughtfully. A well-branded portal reinforces professionalism. Invest time in the logo, colors, and welcome page content to make a strong first impression.
• Respond to portal messages quickly. Customers and partners expect faster responses through the portal than email because the interface feels more immediate. Set internal SLAs for portal message response times.
• Use the portal for deal registration disputes. When partners contest a rejected registration, the portal's audit trail provides a clear record of who submitted what and when, reducing conflict.
• Connect portal analytics to your forecast. High portal engagement from customer stakeholders is a positive buying signal. Factor portal activity into your deal confidence assessment.
• Review portal access quarterly. Deactivate users who have not logged in for 90 days. Stale accounts are a security risk and clutter your user list.
• Train partners on the portal during onboarding. A brief walkthrough call during partner onboarding dramatically increases portal adoption. Partners who use the portal self-serve more and require less channel manager time.