When less pressure leads to more talk: sales tactics and word-of-mouth
When less pressure leads to more talk: sales tactics and word-of-mouth
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.
sales influence, sales tactics, self-efficacy, sense of agency, word-of-mouth (WOM)
Yang, Jingyi
350d6a64-33b9-48f9-ac13-a854d438c4c0
Xu, Yuanyi
1992faac-1dc4-4ba6-ade5-e6d36e174454
Lin, Zhibin
85c7a54c-a3bc-4c08-bbee-01cf90d07d96
5 August 2025
Yang, Jingyi
350d6a64-33b9-48f9-ac13-a854d438c4c0
Xu, Yuanyi
1992faac-1dc4-4ba6-ade5-e6d36e174454
Lin, Zhibin
85c7a54c-a3bc-4c08-bbee-01cf90d07d96
Yang, Jingyi, Xu, Yuanyi and Lin, Zhibin
(2025)
When less pressure leads to more talk: sales tactics and word-of-mouth.
Psychology and Marketing.
(doi:10.1002/mar.70019).
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.
Text
Psychology and Marketing - 2025 - Yang - When Less Pressure Leads to More Talk Sales Tactics and Word‐of‐Mouth
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 23 July 2025
Published date: 5 August 2025
Keywords:
sales influence, sales tactics, self-efficacy, sense of agency, word-of-mouth (WOM)
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 504045
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/504045
ISSN: 0742-6046
PURE UUID: 31b54d5f-5ae6-4f1b-bbfa-2d548cd9791d
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Date deposited: 21 Aug 2025 16:13
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:43
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Contributors
Author:
Jingyi Yang
Author:
Yuanyi Xu
Author:
Zhibin Lin
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