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.