Definition of "hard sell" [hard sell]

• Informal Aggressive, high-pressure selling or promotion. (noun)
• Informal A person or organization that resists pressure from salespeople; a difficult sales prospect. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Odierno recalls that this was a hard sell to some of his commanders."
• "Mrs. Martinelli was giving the hard sell to two middle-age women holding a pair of Christmas sweaters and a Joni Mitchell album."
• "The day Sputnik launched, Armstrong was in Los Angeles at a meeting of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots: What was happening in the test-flight world was a very hard sell to the press, and it became completely impossible once Sputnik came across the sky."