Persuades women, leaving balloons (5)
I believe the answer is:
sells
'persuades' is the definition.
(selling is a kind of persuading)
'women leaving balloons' is the wordplay.
'women' becomes 'w' (standard abbreviation).
'leaving' is a deletion indicator.
'balloons' becomes 'swells' (balloon can mean to swell).
'swells' with 'w' taken out is 'SELLS'.
(Other definitions for sells that I've seen before include "Exchanges for payment" , "Markets" , "Retails" , "Vends" , "Flogs" .)