The Psychology of Sales: How to Close More Deals (Without Feeling Sales-y) with David Priemer

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Business, Careers, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jay sits down with research scientist-turned-entrepreneur David Priemer to do a deep dive into the proven science and psychology of sales. In this conversation, David shares how curiosity - not charisma - became his competitive advantage, and the foundation of his newest business, Cerebral Selling. He breaks down the psychology behind buying decisions and explains why the best sales conversations don’t start with your product. They start with the problem. You’ll hear how David used The ONE Thing to host high-impact executive dinners at Salesforce, turning simple focus questions into powerful masterminds that drove real results. He also unpacks his “PITCH” framework - the storytelling structure behind infomercials - and shows how it applies to premium products, leadership, and everyday conversations. Whether you carry a sales title or not, you are in the business of influence. This episode will help you approach it with more empathy, clarity, and intention. Challenge of the Week: Before your next important conversation, pause and ask yourself: What does this person truly value? Shape your message around that—and see what changes. *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. We talk about: [00:00] From Research Scientist to Sales Authority [08:14] Turning Curiosity Into Cerebral Selling [09:30] Why The ONE Thing Became Required Reading for Sales Teams [12:40] How Executive Dinners Became High-ROI Masterminds [13:57] Using the Focusing Question to Unlock Peer Coaching [21:13] The Psychology of Selling the Problem First [23:19] Breaking Down the PITCH Infomercial Formula [31:52] Applying the PITCH Formula to Premium Enterprise Sales [37:56] The Power of Selling What People Truly Value Links & Tools from This Episode: To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive Check out David’s Business Cerebral Selling Sell the Way You Buy by David Priemer David Priemer’s TED Talk: “Why You’re Bad at Buying Stuff” Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email podcast@the1thing.com Produced by NOVA

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, gang. Today I'm talking with David Primer. He is the founder of cerebral selling, and he is an authority on sales.
0:06.7	But guess what? Like so many of us, he didn't set out to become a sales expert. He didn't set out to be in sales. He started somewhere else.
0:14.7	He was a scientist. But his curiosity led him there, and he breaks down all the great frameworks for creating influence in
0:22.2	our lives, whether you're a salesperson or not. We'll hear about his journey through multiple
0:27.0	startups. We'll hear how infomercials actually capture our attention and get us interested
0:32.3	in the things they're trying to sell us and how we can use those skills for good. Anyway,
0:37.0	there's lots to learn here if you're in sales or if you don't think you are,
0:41.2	there's lots to learn.
0:42.5	Let's enjoy this episode with my friend David Primer.
0:45.4	I'm Jay Papazan and this is the One Thing, your weekly guide to the simple steps
0:49.7	that lead to extraordinary results.
1:03.4	Thank you. that lead to extraordinary results. All right, David, welcome to the show.
1:05.3	Oh, it's great to be here.
1:06.3	Thanks so much, Dave, for having me.
1:07.5	Yeah, it's great.
1:08.3	We got to get together before this and get to know each
1:11.9	a little bit better in our history. But like you like to say that nobody chooses to get into sales.
1:18.3	We have a lot of people in sales that listen to this podcast. Everybody kind of stumbles into it
1:22.9	by accident. That's kind of your story, isn't it? Yeah, like no one gets into sales on purpose.
2:02.6	We don't teach it in school. It's not something that even anyone aspires to, you know, even sales. Can you get a degree in sales? No. You can't, okay, so the reality is there are a select few post-secondary educations that offer anything having to do with sales in the context of business. So maybe you could, but it's also not something that people say, you know what I want to be when I grow up? It's not like an emergency room doctor. It doesn't make you popular parties. And yeah, I was no different. I started my career as a research scientist in the late 90s and got into sales by accident at the turn of the dot-com boom, I joined a startup, which is what you did back then.
2:03.6	But hold on, your job back.
2:05.6	Like, what did you research?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NOVA Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NOVA Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.