The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word SOFT SELL
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
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More clues leading to the result SOFT SELL
- Gentle persuasion something that’s comfortable for prisoner in hearing?
- Gentle persuasion very much associated with paper by group reportedly
- This paper badly loses out with line in subtle marketing
- Not a hard way to get customers?
- Piano vendor has no hesitation to tactfully push his wares
- Therefore paper's unit announced a persuasive method of advertising
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Gentle persuasion" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case gentle persuasion = soft sell.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.