Unwanted pursuit behavior: Understanding salespeople's desire to pursue and desire to avoid customers

Most retail managers encourage their salespeople to offer assistance even when customers are not receptive. This strategy, called unwanted pursuit behavior, is often not appreciated by customers. In addition, salespeople sometimes choose to avoid customers if they think a sale is unlikely. In this study, data from qualitative interviews are used to identify customer and salesperson characteristics that influence salespeople's desire to avoid and desire to pursue a customer. An experiment is employed to test the hypotheses that emerge from the interviews. Insights into how to deal with unwanted pursuit behavior and reduce the tendency for salespeople to avoid customers are discussed.