🗓️ Idiom: A Tough Sell (n)
💬 Meaning
- Something that is difficult to persuade someone to accept or buy
- An idea, product, or proposal that people do not easily agree with
🧠 Example Sentences
- Convincing investors to fund a second app after the first one failed was a tough sell.
- Their new pricing model is a tough sell in such a competitive market.
- The customer service team found the new subscription plan a tough sell to long-term users.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from the world of sales. If a product is hard to sell, it’s called a “tough sell.” Over time, the phrase began to describe anything that is difficult to promote, explain, or convince someone to accept.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Getting clients to accept the new return policy has been ____________________.
Answer
a tough sell
2. Choose the correct meaning of “a tough sell”:
A) Something easy to promote
B) Something hard to convince people about
C) A friendly sales tactic
Answer
B) Something hard to convince people about
3. Change the sentence using “a tough sell”:
“Convincing the team to use the new software was very difficult.”
Answer
Convincing the team to use the new software was a tough sell.
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
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