Meanings
plural tough sells
- Synonym of hard sell (“a sales transaction which is challenging for the sales person to make”).
But if you can't come up with any recent hits within the same genre, and with a similar tone, style, key plot element, and/or marketing demographic to your own idea, you should know your concept is going to be a very tough sell.
2013 April 30, Michael Hauge, Writing Screenplays That Sell, New Twentieth Anniversary Edition: The Complete Guide to Turning Story Concepts into Movie and Television Deals, Harper Collins, →ISBN, page 39Synonyms: hard sell
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of hard sell (“a sales transaction which is challenging for the sales person to make”).
Cite this entry
tough sell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tough%20sell
“tough sell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tough%20sell. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tough sell,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tough%20sell.
Source: tough sell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.