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Imagine this…

Your nieces have been calling you the Grinch lately because you’ve sworn off the holidays.

But today is the Monday morning that changes everything.

After five long years of ordering the same boring vanilla latte at your favorite coffee shop, you’re going to spice things up…

You’re going to order a gingerbread latte instead to prove the first graders wrong and *gulp* get into the holiday spirit.

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As soon as you open the door, you’re delightfully overwhelmed with the smell of coffee beans roasting.

There are about five people in line, so you whip out your phone and start scrolling through your email to pass the time.

You’re furiously typing an email to your teammate Chad (and *totally* CC’ing your boss) when the barista’s voice rips through your epic response.

She asks what you want to order.

Without thinking about it you say, “Just a vanilla latte, please.”

Why did you default to your usual coffee order?

In today’s edition of Why We Buy 🧠 we’ll explore Autopilot Mode—why we tend to make decisions automatically (and unconsciously) instead of carefully analyzing them.

Let’s get into it.
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🧠 The Psychology of Autopilot Mode

We make ~35,000 decisions each day. That’s a lot of work.

And instead of carefully analyzing every. single. decision, we typically take mental shortcuts that psychologists Susan Fiske and Shelley Taylor call “cognitive misers.”

These mental shortcuts or cues fuel Autopilot Mode.

And they don’t just stay in your head—they drive your actions, without you even realizing it.

In a famous 1996 study, researchers primed participants with age-related words (e.g. “slow,” “old,” or “retired”).

But little did they know…

The real experiment came when they left the room. That’s when researchers measured the time it took them to walk down the hallway.

The crazy part?

Participants primed with the elderly stereotypes walked slower than those in the control group.

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Your customers don’t consciously evaluate every single buying decision—they’re more likely to default to the product or service they’ve always used.

Which is no bueno if that isn’t you.

That’s why you’ve gotta give them a no-brainer reason to buy from you. (Pun intended.)
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🤑 How To Apply This

Alright, so how can you apply this right now to sell more?

SaaS​
​Help buyers make the best decision on autopilot

Buyers don’t want to use up precious cognitive energy eeny-meeny-miny-moeing which email marketing plan is the best for them.

So Kit made it easy by limiting the choices and highlighting exactly which plan is best for their target audience: creators. (Topped off with a sky-blue CTA compared to the dreary gray ones.)

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This triggers a mental shortcut: “This is recommended, so it must be the best option for me.”

So instead of overthinking the decision, potential users are more likely to make the suggested choice automatically.

Apps​
​Link your brand to buyers’ desired outcomes

Calm uses calming colors, serene images, and reassuring phrases like “Calm your mind. Change your life” to highlight their users’ desired outcomes—calmness, strength, and confidence.

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This primes users to associate the app with relaxation and mindfulness.

So when they feel stressed, they’ll automatically open this app up.

​eCommerce​
​Use personalized retargeting ads to save the sale

After our biz teardown of Lumē, retargeting ads started popping up in our social media feed like whack-a-mole.

This is an extremely smart strategy because seeing the same brand repeatedly primes your brain to feel more familiar with it, making you more likely to buy—even if you don’t consciously remember seeing the ads.

It also keeps the brand top of mind when you’re ready to make your next purchase.
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💥 The Short of It

We make decisions on Autopilot Mode because decision-making would be unbearable otherwise. (NGL, it kinda already is.)

So you’ve gotta find ways to get into your customers’ brains and prime them to think of you.

That way when it comes to taking action, they’re more likely to choose you for their next purchase.

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Until next time, happy selling!