Operationalizing and De-Risking Positioning, with Mike Grinberg

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Aug 20, 2025

Mike Grinberg, founder of Proofpoint Marketing, specializes in helping boutique firms enhance their positioning against bigger competitors. He discusses the concept of the 'Safe Choice Problem,' where agencies that differentiate too much become confusing. Mike emphasizes the importance of addressing client risk perceptions in uncertain markets. He outlines three levels of differentiation: functional, intellectual property, and promotional. The conversation highlights how effective positioning should align with overall business design to truly resonate with clients.

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INSIGHT

Safe Choice Dominates Buying Behavior

Boutique firms lose deals to incumbents because buyers default to the 'safe choice' to manage risk.
Positioning must explicitly address buyer risk perception, not just claim to be better or different.

ANECDOTE

Proofpoint Evolved From A Demand-Gen Agency

Mike and his wife ran Proofpoint as a demand-gen agency and gradually niched into professional services.
That evolution led Mike to focus on de-risking boutique firms through positioning work.

ANECDOTE

Hyper-Differentiation Can Create Confusion

Marcel described Parakeeto's hyper-differentiation causing buyer confusion and perceived risk.
That experience motivated reflection on balancing uniqueness with recognizability.

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Points of Interest

1:10 – 2:03 – Introduction: Marcel welcomes Mike Grinberg, founder of Proofpoint Marketing, who specializes in helping boutique firms strengthen positioning to compete against large incumbents.
2:15 – 3:54 – Competing with “IBM”: Mike explains his role as helping boutique firms reduce client risk perception so they can win against well-known, safer-seeming competitors.
4:48 – 5:40 – The Safe Choice Problem: Agencies that differentiate too much without context risk being seen as confusing or risky, which often drives clients back to incumbents.
5:46 – 8:44 – Positioning Overlooked Through Risk: Traditional positioning frameworks focus on being better or different but rarely consider how buyers perceive risk in making a nontraditional choice.
10:08 – 12:52 – Why Positioning Matters More Now: In uncertain markets, poor positioning is exposed. Firms that only grew with the tide find themselves struggling when growth slows.
13:10 – 14:16 – Positioning as an Operational Issue: Positioning cannot be treated as surface-level messaging; it must be reflected in delivery, hiring, onboarding, and overall business design.
15:13 – 17:29 – Three Levels of Differentiation: Mike outlines functional, intellectual property (frameworks, tools, methodologies), and promotional differentiation as the three vectors agencies must align.
19:00 – 20:13 – The Category Dilemma: Agencies often struggle between fitting into known categories, which brings competition, or creating new ones, which increases client risk and education costs.
22:23 – 24:03 – Functional vs. IP Positioning: Mike advocates anchoring to existing categories functionally while differentiating through intellectual property and go-to-market messaging.
26:30 – 27:49 – Starting with Ideal Client Profile (ICP): Effective positioning begins with deeply defining the ICP beyond titles and industries, including attributes like stage, structure, and challenges.
30:26 – 36:23 – The Risk Perception Matrix: Mike introduces his framework with two axes—personal vs. organizational risk and internal skepticism vs. external questioning—to explain how agencies can derisk buying decisions at every stage.

Show Notes

Connect with Mike via LinkedIn
Newsletter: Proofpoint.marketing
Risk Perception Matrix

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