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MarginArc Plays

A play is a named strategic move you can run on the right kind of deal. Buy the subscription cheap to lock in the renewal twelve months from now. Walk a race-to-the-bottom that has no follow-on. Take a thin Cisco AP deal because the DNA license attach is where the margin actually lives. Each play is a pattern that experienced reps already know but rarely articulate to themselves at quote time. MarginArc surfaces them.

How it shows up in the product​

When you upload a quote and answer the pre-scoring questions, MarginArc looks at the deal context, the customer's history with you, and the catalog of plays. If the deal context fits one or more plays, you see a candidate menu before the score locks in. Each candidate card is a fully-scored projection of what this deal looks like under that play: the margin to take today, the projected margin at payoff, the dollar payoff over the play's horizon, the win probability, and the deal-specific risks.

You pick the play that matches what you're actually doing. The picked candidate's scoring becomes your official score for the deal, and the play instance is recorded against the customer so MarginArc can recognize the follow-on deal when it shows up later.

If no play fits, you can score the deal straight. There's an "or score this deal without a play" link at the bottom of the menu for exactly that case.

What's in the catalog​

The catalog is curated. Every play is hand-authored and tuned to real channel economics. Each play has:

  • A name and a one-line headline
  • A direction (the strategic frame: what we're trading and what we expect back)
  • A typical payoff horizon (a soft range, not a hard date)
  • The intel slots the play wants filled (deal reg status, partner tier, OEM program facts, and so on)
  • A list of typical risks
  • An execution playbook (3 to 5 ordered steps to run the play, surfaced when you click into the play detail)

Plays come in two scopes: Generalist plays that apply to any OEM, and OEM-specific plays that only fire when the deal is on a specific OEM (a Cisco-AP-loss-leader play won't surface on a Dell deal).

You can also author your own plays. See the Plays Marketplace guide for how to fork a play, save your own pattern, and share into a Circle.

How candidates get scored​

Behind the scenes, MarginArc does this when you finish your pre-scoring questions:

  1. Filters the catalog to plays that pass the deal's hard rules (right OEM, right deal size, right quote shape).
  2. Runs an eligibility gate: a fast model call that decides whether any of those plays are actually relevant to this specific deal, and gives a short reasoning paragraph.
  3. For each play that passes the gate, runs a full per-candidate scoring call on the deal's intel bundle (OEM dossier, partner tier, deal-reg mechanics, customer facts, your context). That call produces the margin band, projected band at payoff, expected payoff dollars, win probability, and risks specific to this deal under this play.
  4. Surfaces the menu with the cards.

If the gate decides no play is relevant, you go straight to standalone scoring with no menu shown. That's the "auto score it" path. The header on the candidate menu says "We see N strategic plays for your deal" and surfaces the gate's reasoning so you understand why a play is being recommended.

Auto-match for follow-on deals​

Plays span multiple deals. When you upload a future deal at a customer that already has an active play, MarginArc checks whether this deal could be the play's payoff or a member of it. The signals it uses are the OEM, the time window since the play started, the product family overlap with what the play expected to capture, and the deal's size relative to the play's expected payoff. If two or more signals match, you'll see a "Continue [play name] (payoff)" candidate in the menu alongside any catalog candidates. You always confirm the attribution; nothing is silently auto-applied.

Confirming a payoff closes the play, records the recoupment dollars, and updates the recovery curve at the customer page.

After you pick​

The picked play instance shows up at the customer page in the Active plays section. You can see the sacrifice you took, what's been recouped against it, the expected payoff target date, and the playbook steps. None of this is workflow: there are no due dates, no "you're behind" badges, no calendar nags. The play is an advisory map you can come back to.

The deal's scoring page shows a slim "Active play context" summary so you remember what you committed to.

What plays do NOT do​

  • They don't lock you into anything. You can pick a play, change your mind on the deal, and the play instance can be abandoned.
  • They don't replace the deal score. The picked candidate's scoring IS your deal score; the play is just the strategic frame that produced it.
  • They don't impose timelines. The horizon is a soft range. Reminders are optional and only fire on dates you choose.
  • Plays Marketplace: browse the catalog, fork plays, author your own.
  • Account Intelligence: recovery curves, active plays per customer, multi-deal play arcs.
  • Eligibility gate: how MarginArc decides when a deal sees a menu vs. auto-scores standalone.
  • Circles: share plays you've authored with the reps you trust.