The 70-20-10 model is a guideline holding that about 70% of workplace learning comes from experience, 20% from other people and 10% from formal training.
What the 70, the 20 and the 10 are on a sales team
On a sales team, the 70 is the live pipeline: the calls and deals a rep works every week. The 20 is the manager and peers working those deals with the rep, mostly in 1:1s and deal reviews. The 10 is formal training, onboarding and the kickoff.
The model grew out of the Center for Creative Leadership's Lessons of Experience research, which asked successful executives what shaped their development, so read the ratio as a rule of thumb. The 10 is often smaller than its label: our sales kickoff field study found real kickoff agendas give learning content 11% of their minutes (Game Winning Kickoffs).
The usual mistake is to assume the 70 happens by itself. A rep can run forty first calls in a month and learn nothing from thirty-five of them, because nobody asked what happened. Across 117 studies, skills held when people worked on their own situations and their managers were trained on the same thing (Taylor, Russ-Eft & Chan 2005). The 20 turns experience into learning, and it runs out when managers run out of hours.
A discovery standard split three ways
A team launches a new discovery standard (illustrative). The 10 is a half-day session at the kickoff. The 70 is every first call each rep runs in the next month. The 20 is the deal review after each first call, where the rep talks the deal through on a call with their manager or with an AI sales expert, either of whom knows the standard and asks what the buyer said about the problem.
In week three, the 20 sounds like this in a 1:1. A weak answer from the rep: "Calls are going well, I'm using the new questions." A strong one: "I asked Jordan at the freight account what late invoices cost them. She said two people spend Fridays chasing them. I didn't get a number, so that's my first question Thursday." The manager's check is one question: "Which of this week's first calls did we debrief, and what did the buyer say?"
Related terms
- Sales kickoff: often a large single block of the 10
- Transfer of training: how the 10 reaches the 70
- Sales kickoff guide: planning the event around the weeks after
FAQ
What does 70-20-10 stand for? It stands for the share of workplace learning from three sources: about 70% from experience on the job, 20% from other people such as managers and peers, and 10% from formal training and courses.
Is the 70-20-10 model backed by evidence? It comes from interview research with executives on what shaped their development, so it describes where people say they learned. Treat the ratio as a guideline for where to put effort.
How does 70-20-10 apply to sales training? It says most of a rep's learning happens on live deals and in coaching on those deals. Formal training sets the standard; the manager's work on real deals decides whether it sticks.