Review of the book "Monetization of Business" - Andrey Merkulov. About increasing the profitability of business

Merkulov meticulously, like a surgeon, dissects business processes to the bone, showing:

• Where exactly in the operational flow money is leaking
• Why ignoring the nuances of customer behavior is like selling fish at the market without a refrigerator

The chapter that really catches your attention is the one where, using a specific example of a local online store, the steps are broken down:

• Assortment optimization
• Automation of feedback

Reading these case studies, you can't help but think: "I have a similar situation in my business - why not give it a try?"

However, behind the apparent simplicity of the advice lies a demand for attention to detail:

• Merkulov never tires of repeating - without a deep understanding of customers and a willingness to change, no life hacks will save the day

His book is not a collection of magic buttons, but rather a minefield map, where every step requires attention and common sense.

Key Concepts and Their Analysis

If you dissect the skeleton of the proposed concepts, you will immediately notice a categorical emphasis on analyzing client behavior: the author literally forces you to dig through every stage of communication with the consumer, as if sifting through fine sand in a sieve to find gold nuggets.

The focus is on not beautiful schemes, but a textbook extraction from real cases; for example, when it comes to segmenting the audience, Merkulov does not beat around the bush, but directly points to real pain points — where the funnel "sags" conversion and what to do specifically to prevent it from leaking like a sieve.

• The implementation of automation, in his opinion, is no longer a fashionable toy, but turns into a survival tool: if you don't implement it, get ready to catch losses.
• It is particularly revealing how the author analyzes unsuccessful attempts to implement new monetization models — there is no enthusiastic aplomb here, but a tough analysis of the situation with conclusions and recommendations that, frankly, are not for the faint of heart.
• It feels like the author is deliberately teasing the reader with the prospect of quick results, only to douse them with cold water the next minute: without scrupulous work and a sober assessment of reality, there's no point in counting on a miracle.

Who is the book for

From the first pages, it becomes clear: we're not dealing with a bland, generalized mush for the masses, but a targeted package for those who know firsthand what a negative balance on their current account feels like.

• Target audience: company owners, heads of sales and marketing departments
• Focus on numbers: every morning starts with reviewing reports
• Warning for beginners: those dreaming of cozy "passive income"

Beginners risk drowning in a sea of pragmatic recommendations where there's no room for sentimentality:

• No fairy tales about viral successes here
• Demands full commitment and readiness to do homework with a magnifying glass and calculator

For those who've been searching not for trendy slogans, but for specific leverage to influence profitability and business sustainability, the book becomes a working tool — cold, honest, and ruthlessly truthful.

About the author and his significance in marketing

When it comes to a person whose name regularly appears at industry conferences and whose articles are dissected and quoted in professional chats, you can't help but raise the bar of expectations. Andrey Merkulov has long been more than just a “marketing expert” in the business community; he's a living benchmark for those who prefer to take action rather than just talk.

• His approach is recognizable from the very first pages: no fluff, no pandering to the audience — just the essence of his experience.
• Gained under conditions where the cost of a mistake is too high to allow theorizing.
• His significance in the marketing field doesn't lie in his title or flashy credentials.
• His methods have been tested on real companies with real turnovers.
• A miscalculation risks not just a "paper" loss, but a very tangible cash shortfall.

In an industry awash with empty promises and pseudo-innovations, Merkulov is distinguished by a rare ability to pinpoint the pain points and offer solutions that work not in a vacuum, but in the harsh everyday reality of Russian business.

The Book's Place in Modern Marketing Literature

In an era when bookshelves are bursting with glossy covers containing empty success recipes, this work feels like a cold shower for entrepreneurs tired of infobusiness: no fawning before fashion and no attempts to sugarcoat the pill.

Against the general background of publications where promises are fed to the reader more than facts, here is a strict diet of specifics endured in practice. You won't find worn-out quotes from Kotler or hackneyed growth schemes here — instead, real business cases come into view, where every decision is tested not on paper, but on the real accounts of real companies.

In modern marketing literature, where one-day wonders and retellings of Western bestsellers often reign, this text stands out with its pragmatic "down-to-earth" approach and the fact that it puts working tools for those who truly count money to the forefront, rather than hype.

Against the backdrop of a general chase for likes, sober calculation and respect for the reader who is not looking for magic pills, but is ready to roll up their sleeves and implement, reign here.

Relevance of the publication at the current moment

The times when you could just follow the lead of Western business stars and collect ovations are now history - today, an entrepreneur has to survive in conditions where the rules of the game change almost every quarter, and familiar methods turn into museum exhibits. This is exactly why there is a keen interest in fresh ideas, which the author presents without embellishment and without regard for trendy trends.

• Concrete ways to increase income taking into account new realities:
• Price jumps
• Digitalization
• Total competition for customer attention

Reading this book is not a nostalgia for yesterday, but an attempt to catch today's business nerve, where there's no time for sentiment: either you quickly learn to count, or you're out of the game. That is why the publication inspires confidence - it does not cater to the tastes of the crowd, but responds to the harsh demand of the times, when every management decision has to be tested in practice, without leaving the cash register.

Fundamental Marketing Concepts

At the center of the narrative is the entrepreneur's alphabet, but it's presented not in the spirit of edifying lectures, but as a set of tools for survival in conditions where old schemes no longer work.

• Merkulov doesn't retell a marketing textbook, but breaks down the essence into its component parts.
• What exactly makes a client open their wallet.
• Why familiar "funnels" no longer catch.
• Where the real added value is hidden.

The author doesn't obscure the view with empty terms — he literally forces a re-examination of how a company builds relationships with its audience.

• Why the "narrow neck" isn't always where it's looked for.
• How to finally stop following the tide of fashionable advice.

The most curious thing is that there's no attempt to simplistically simplify complex things: instead, the reader will have to soberly assess how their processes are structured and not begrudge the time spent on meticulous diagnostics.

This approach commands respect: instead of a sweet pill — the need to think, compare, and not be afraid to expose one's weak points.

Innovative ideas and modern trends

When you get to the chapter about fresh trends and cutting-edge approaches, you realize: the author is not just an observer, but a participant in the events, having gone through the fire and water of the real market.

The author doesn't hang trendy labels like “digital transformation” or “omnichannel”, but instead dissects how hybrid pricing schemes actually work, why customization is no longer a luxury, and how the meaning of “loyalty” is changing right before our eyes.

What really caught my attention was the analysis of cases where classical methods give way to technologies at the intersection of IT and human needs — and that's when it gets really interesting:

• why some companies take off,
• while others get stuck in place,
• even though they all seem to be reading the same trend news.

To be honest, this section doesn't let you relax — instead of ready-made recipes, it throws up a bunch of uncomfortable questions that make you re-examine your own business processes.

And while the author doesn't promise the moon, they teach you to see real growth points where most people are used to seeing only routine.

Applicability of Concepts in Modern Business

When it comes to assessing how relevant these concepts are to the real tasks of today's entrepreneur, it becomes clear: the material is not about castles in the air, but about painstaking work with what is already at hand. The author suggests looking not at trendy presentation slides, but at living, breathing systems, where every decision has to be adapted to one's own reality, not to an abstract ideal world.

Examples are not far to seek — here and analysis of the implementation of flexible tariff plans in service companies, and a sober look at how small businesses can get the most out of personalized offers without millions in IT development.

On the one hand, it seems that everything is clear — just do it; on the other hand — it's precisely in the details that the author reveals the pitfalls that cause some enterprises to grow briskly while others get bogged down. I was struck, I confess, by the honesty: no rose-tinted glasses, just specifics that sometimes hit one's pride — it turns out that familiar methods sometimes no longer work, and new ones require not just implementation, but a rethinking of the approach to customers and one's own products.

Reading these chapters, you catch yourself thinking that behind every piece of advice is experience of mistakes, not just successes, and this is more convincing than any promise of "breakthrough" results.

Case studies and examples from real business

Strengths of the publication

But perhaps the main strength of this work is the author's ability not to tear the reader away from reality, not to lead them into cloudy theorizing, but to show how real businesses struggle daily, look for ways out, and earn not by making a lucky bet, but by paying close attention to details.

• There are no sugary promises to "double revenue in a week" here
• There's a honest conversation about how non-working schemes are eliminated in practice
• Why even "trendy" tools can become a burdensome load
• How important it is to learn to listen not only to the market but also to your own mistakes

The book has a distinct "workshop flavor": it smells not of presentations, but of real work, where each decision requires not only calculations but also inner honesty.

• The author is not afraid to analyze failures
• Doesn't hide the rough edges
• The material doesn't turn into another collection of slogans on the theme "become successful"

Each chapter makes you wonder: isn't there too much unnecessary in your own business, and isn't it time to stop waiting for miracles and start methodically eliminating everything that doesn't bring results?

Critical Analysis

However, if you dig a little deeper, it becomes obvious that despite the convincing practical presentation, the author sometimes fails to avoid slipping into a too narrow view of the processes. In an attempt to protect the reader from illusions and empty promises, he sometimes gets too carried away with denying new tools, forgetting that innovations are not always trendy flashiness, but sometimes the last chance to stay afloat.

Sometimes it feels like criticism of the "unnecessary" turns into an end in itself:

• some sections are so fixated on cutting off what doesn't work,
• that the reader risks missing what's important - not every failure indicates that a method is unusable,
• and every "old" solution sometimes requires a fresh look.

It's not enough to simply get rid of the unnecessary - you also need to understand what exactly will be the grain among the chaff for your situation, and the book doesn't always provide the tools for such analysis. It's also important that the examples given by the author, although convincing, are often isolated from the context - it creates the impression that they are taken out of the overall picture, and it's not always clear whether they can be extrapolated to one's own experience.

All this leaves behind not only respect for the author's honesty but also a slight feeling of understatement: as if, in the striving for down-to-earthness, somewhere along the way, the breadth of vision so necessary in the rapidly changing business world was lost.

Tools and techniques for practical use

When it comes to specific schemes and methods, the author's captivating straightforwardness makes the reader hope for a set of clear instructions: just take and implement. Indeed, the pages contain step-by-step algorithms broken down into stages, which are like checklists for sales or marketing departments — take and apply without unnecessary water. However, the longer you read, the more you feel that many of these "working tools" are given in isolation from the real complexities of implementation: the author seems to imply that it's enough to change a couple of buttons on the website, and the revenue graph will immediately go up.

What's missing is the so-called "roadmap" that would take into account:

• team resistance
• market specifics
• banal failures

When it seems like you've done everything according to the instructions, but the result is minimal. And the examples, despite their abundance, sometimes resemble dry calculations from a textbook — without a living nerve, without details on how the decisions were actually made, and what pitfalls were encountered along the way.

Popularity of the real edition

Judging by the hype on specialized forums and the number of discussions in professional chats, this book is not just lost on the shelves - it is read, quoted, and disputed heatedly.

Surprisingly, even those who have watched dozens of webinars and consider themselves seasoned business gurus do not pass by:

• Discuss cases, share screenshots of their own implementation attempts.
• Argue about the applicability of advice to their niches.

I have repeatedly come across reviews - they say, “this scheme from there really worked”, and a couple of comments later - scepticism: “for us, it’s different, it didn’t work”. This is a genuine interest that is hard to fake: when after reading, you don’t put the book on the back burner, but immediately try to change something in your processes.

Such a level of engagement is rare for literature of this kind, and this is perhaps the best indicator of demand:

• When the material becomes a topic for heated debates, and not just another tick on the list of what’s been read.

Other works by the author

If you take a look behind the scenes of Merkurov's other publications, it becomes clear that this is not a one-hit wonder, but a person who consistently builds their concept of increasing business efficiency.

His previous works are not limited to banal compilations of other people's ideas - on the contrary, each of them catches a fresh look at the eternal rakes of small and medium-sized businesses.

• Recalling how in one of his previous books Merkurov analyzed in detail the typical traps of managerial thinking, and in another - the topics of pricing and customer service,
• you understand that his approach is always a challenge to templates and convenient self-justifications.

You read - it's like having a debate with the author, because he doesn't let you relax and makes you test your ideas about business for strength.

It is noteworthy that there are no mediocre works in his bibliography: each book is a separate tool for those who are not willing to put up with stagnation and are looking for real, not theoretical solutions.

Comparison with other works by the author

Unlike his earlier reflections on the psychological traps of a leader or the ruthless analysis of service failures, here Merkoulov turns the degree of pragmatism to the maximum — as if inviting the reader to sit down at the same desk with his own financial reports.

Against the background of previous publications, it is especially noticeable how the author abandons academic reasoning in favor of ruthless specificity:

• If earlier he could afford to philosophize about corporate culture, now he makes you disassemble business processes down to the smallest detail.
• Count the benefit without discounts on "market peculiarities".

This transition from analyzing mental barriers to a step-by-step dissection of financial reserves feels like a challenge to himself — are you ready not only to understand where you're losing money, but also to stop hiding behind fashionable strategies that are littered throughout the specialized literature?

Against the background of his past works, this book produces the impression of an icy shower: the author without sentiment pushes towards action, rather than comfortable reflection, and this is what distinguishes it in the line of his works — maximum practice, minimum self-comfort.

Similar literature by other authors

In the book market, where “business life hacks” multiply at the speed of light rabbits at a presentation, Mergulov's approach sharply contrasts with what, for example, Bakharev or Yaroshenko offer:

• For the former, the publication turns into an endless series of cases from other people's lips,
• For the latter, it is a collection of tips on staff motivation, where practical calculations drown in a stream of commonplaces.

Literature in the spirit of Paramonov often lapses into descriptions of “successful successes” with vague recommendations at the level of “be proactive” and “look for win-win”, forgetting that an entrepreneur solves not eternal questions of being, but quite specific tasks to reduce costs and increase returns on every invested ruble.

Unlike these authors, Mergulov's new work does not lead the reader into reasoning about leadership or corporate soul, but bluntly requires recalculating every expense item, leaving no chance to hide behind abstractions.

On the shelf next door, his book looks if not like a sobering blow, then like a assembly point for those who are tired of stamping in place, flipping through the same “universal recipes” that do not work in reality.