When Less Pressure Leads to More Talk: Sales Tactics and Word-of-Mouth

Abstract

This study investigates how encourage-to-deliberate versus pressure-to-purchase sales tactics influence customers' positive word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviour. Drawing from research on influence tactics and self-determination theory, we propose that encourage-to-deliberate tactics, which align with noncoercive approaches emphasizing rational persuasion, are more likely to trigger positive WOM, compared to pressure-to-purchase strategies. Through five experimental studies across diverse retail contexts (clothing, travel products, fitness services, and electronics), we demonstrate that this effect is mediated by customers' sense of agency - the experience of being the initiator of one's actions and their consequences. Furthermore, we find that customers' self-efficacy moderates this relationship, with the positive effect of encourage-to-deliberate tactics being stronger for customers with low (vs. high) self-efficacy. Our findings extend sales influence research beyond immediate purchase outcomes to word-of-mouth behaviour, offering implications for how retailers can foster positive WOM through agency-supportive sales approaches.