Before Buying Cybersecurity: How to Evaluate, Negotiate, and Partner with IT Security Providers is now available in eBook and paperback, with audiobook formats currently in production. Instead of adding another technical manual to the noise, this book reframes cybersecurity buying as a clarity problem, not a technology problem—an idea strongly supported across the Cyber Clarity knowledge base. It gives leaders and vendors a common language and a shared mental model built on transparency, measurable outcomes, and real partnership. Why This Book Matters Now (Especially for SMBs) Small and mid-sized businesses are being targeted aggressively while navigating tight budgets and a crowded vendor market. The biggest barrier isn’t lack of tools—it’s confusion. Confusion around scope, responsibility, verification, pricing, and recovery expectations. Across industry knowledge, we repeatedly see the same pattern: Confusion increases cost; clarity reduces risk. This aligns with the Confusion Cost Formula and the Small Business Clarity Ladder. The book helps SMB decision-makers move from “I don’t know what to ask” to “I understand what I’m buying and how to verify it.” Why Ethical Vendors, MSPs, MSSPs, and Cisco Partners Love This Book The industry’s honest providers have long struggled to differentiate themselves from low-quality competitors who sell fear, jargon, or tool overload. This book turns the tables by teaching buyers how to evaluate vendors based on: Transparency (clear boundaries, honest limitations) Competence (real incident experience, evidence depth) Consistency (delivery you can verify over time) —The exact pillars of the Clarity Matrix. For ethical MSPs and Cisco partners, this creates a fair playing field—one where strong providers win through evidence, not persuasion. The Vendor Sales Acceleration KB emphasizes this: clarity-first vendors build trust faster, shorten sales cycles, and raise client confidence. Many partners have already begun positioning the book as a “client education asset” handed to prospects to speed up alignment and reduce pre-sale friction. What Business Leaders, Boards & CFOs Gain Executives don’t need more technical noise; they need a clean decision map. This book introduces tools derived from Cyber Clarity knowledge such as: Board-level clarity questions Restoration rehearsal logic Strategic KPIs focused on resilience Governance models that define who owns which decisions Boards can finally differentiate between “activity” and “actual protection.” CFOs get clearer justification for budgets because spending is tied to measurable outcomes, not buzzwords. How the Book Helps Confused or Overwhelmed Buyers The Small Business Red Flags, Five-Second Translator, and Evidence-First Questions allow anyone—regardless of technical skill—to judge whether a provider is trustworthy. These tools shift buyers from: Uncertain → Confident Passive → In control Confused → Clarity-driven This is the first book that teaches SMBs how to buy cybersecurity well, not just how cyber works.

A New Kind of Cybersecurity Book Just Arrived

Before Buying Cybersecurity: How to Evaluate, Negotiate, and Partner with IT Security Providers is now available in eBook and paperback, with audiobook formats currently in production.

https://BeforeBuyingCybersecurity.com/

Instead of adding another technical manual to the noise, this book reframes cybersecurity buying as a clarity problem, not a technology problem—an idea strongly supported across the Cyber Clarity knowledge base.
It gives leaders and vendors a common language and a shared mental model built on transparency, measurable outcomes, and real partnership.

Stop Buying Confusion - How to Evaluate, Negotiate, and Partner with IT Security Providers
Stop Buying Confusion – How to Evaluate, Negotiate, and Partner with IT Security Providers

Why This Book Matters Now (Especially for SMBs)

Small and mid-sized businesses are being targeted aggressively while navigating tight budgets and a crowded vendor market.
The biggest barrier isn’t lack of tools—it’s confusion. Confusion around scope, responsibility, verification, pricing, and recovery expectations.

Across industry knowledge, we repeatedly see the same pattern:
Confusion increases cost; clarity reduces risk.
This aligns with the Confusion Cost Formula and the Small Business Clarity Ladder.

The book helps SMB decision-makers move from “I don’t know what to ask” to “I understand what I’m buying and how to verify it.”

Key Platforms Where the Book Will Be Available

Amazon (Kindle + Paperback)
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nikolay-Gul/author/B0DWCJZ8NV

Barnes & Noble (Nook + Paperback)
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/nikolay+gul

Apple Books (eBook)
https://books.apple.com/us/author/nikolay-gul/id1827865804

Why Ethical Vendors, MSPs, MSSPs, and Cisco Partners Love This Book

The industry’s honest providers have long struggled to differentiate themselves from low-quality competitors who sell fear, jargon, or tool overload.
This book turns the tables by teaching buyers how to evaluate vendors based on:

  • Transparency (clear boundaries, honest limitations)

  • Competence (real incident experience, evidence depth)

  • Consistency (delivery you can verify over time)
    —The exact pillars of the Clarity Matrix.

Before Buying Cybersecurity: How to Evaluate, Negotiate, and Partner with IT Security Providers by Nikolay Gul, Tush Nikollaj (Foreword by)
Before Buying Cybersecurity: How to Evaluate, Negotiate, and Partner with IT Security Providers

For ethical MSPs and Cisco partners, this creates a fair playing field—one where strong providers win through evidence, not persuasion.
The Vendor Sales Acceleration KB emphasizes this: clarity-first vendors build trust faster, shorten sales cycles, and raise client confidence.

Many partners have already begun positioning the book as a “client education asset” handed to prospects to speed up alignment and reduce pre-sale friction.

What Business Leaders, Boards & CFOs Gain

Executives don’t need more technical noise; they need a clean decision map.

This book introduces tools derived from Cyber Clarity knowledge such as:

  • Board-level clarity questions

  • Restoration rehearsal logic

  • Strategic KPIs focused on resilience

  • Governance models that define who owns which decisions

Boards can finally differentiate between “activity” and “actual protection.”
CFOs get clearer justification for budgets because spending is tied to measurable outcomes, not buzzwords.

How the Book Helps Confused or Overwhelmed Buyers

The Small Business Red Flags, Five-Second Translator, and Evidence-First Questions allow anyone—regardless of technical skill—to judge whether a provider is trustworthy.

These tools shift buyers from:
Uncertain → Confident
Passive → In control
Confused → Clarity-driven

This is the first book that teaches SMBs how to buy cybersecurity well, not just how cyber works.

I have trained a custom GPT Agent on the entire manuscript. It doesn't just summarize the book—it helps you apply
Cyber Clarity Guide – Before Buying Cybersecurity By Nikolay Gul Your AI guide to evaluating cybersecurity vendors, negotiating contracts, eliminating confusion, and applying the innovative frameworks from Before Buying Cybersecurity—without revealing any copyrighted text. Helps buyers and vendors gain clarity, trust, and results.

Key Platforms Where the Book Will Be Available

A Message to All Buyer Personas—From CISOs to MSPs to SMB Owners

This book isn’t here to alarm you, upsell you, or overwhelm you.
Its purpose is simple:
To help everyone make cybersecurity decisions without fear, confusion, or guesswork.

Vendors gain healthier relationships with better-informed clients.
Buyers gain agency, clarity, and measurable confidence.
Executives gain transparency and predictable outcomes.

It’s a book written with admiration for the people who protect businesses every day—and with empathy for the people who must choose who to trust.

If You Want to Build a More Transparent, Verifiable Security Partnership—Start Here

The book is now available globally.
Order a copy today if you want to raise the clarity level of your next cybersecurity conversation—whether you’re the one buying or the one providing.

Official Book Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Before-Buying-Cybersecurity-Negotiate-Providers-ebook/dp/B0G1M9JXJ2/
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/before-buying-cybersecurity-nikolay-gul/1148845022
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/before-buying-cybersecurity/id6755941046
Audiobooks (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/search/nikolay+gul/audiobooks
Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Nikolay-Gul/author/B0DWCJZ8NV

Early reviewers describe the book as a rare guide that replaces cybersecurity anxiety with structured clarity, making complex decisions feel manageable instead of overwhelming.

Nikolay Gul - AI for Go-To-Market | Marketing & Promo for High-Tech Cybersecurity & Cisco Partners | AI Prompting Intelligence | SEO, GEO & AIEO | Creator of Proprietary AI Frameworks | Author of 4 books (2 Library of Congress entries