Training and Development: Difference, Importance, and Benefits

Is your team working hard but barely keeping up with the demands of a fast-changing market? New hires might be overwhelmed, sales reps might be struggling to tackle new challenges, or managers may feel pressured to push performance without knowing the best approach.

In most cases, the problem isn’t a lack of talent or motivation—it’s that they don’t have the tools, skills, or guidance they need to do their best work. Without these, even the best employees can get burnt out and eventually quit. These challenges are common, and they can have a serious impact on your business.

This is where training and development comes in. Research from SHRM found that 86% of HR managers believe training aids in retention, and 83% said it’s a recruitment tool. While it’s not always easy to distinguish between the two, this article is here to help. How do you know when your team needs training and when they need development? And how can you integrate both to unlock your sales team’s full potential? Let’s find out.

What is Training?

Training is the process of teaching or learning necessary skills or gaining knowledge to improve performance in a particular task or job. It’s focused on immediate, short-term goals, such as acquiring the competencies required to perform a job.

For example, employee training might involve learning to use new software or follow company procedures. It’s practical and task-oriented, designed to fill gaps and ensure people can do their jobs well.

What is Development?

Development refers to the broader and long-term process of personal or professional growth over time. It involves improving leadership skills, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking. Development aims to evolve the employees as they prepare for new opportunities and more complex responsibilities. It’s often tied to career progression.

Training vs. Development: What’s the Difference?

Training and development are often used interchangeably, but they have significant differences. Training aims to improve specific job-related skills, while development goes a step further by guiding employees with continuous learning, mentorship, and hands-on experiences as they grow their careers within the company. Together, they create a balanced, holistic initiative for employee success.

Let’s compare their key differences:

	Training	Development
Focus	Specific skill set or task	Personal or professional growth
Time	Short-term	Long-term
Purpose	Improve current job performance	Prepare for future roles or challenges
Application	Task-oriented	Goal-oriented
Outcome	Immediate skill acquisition	Career advancement
Approach	Structured	Flexible
Evaluation	Measured by task performance	Measured by long-term progress

• Focus: Training equips employees with the specific skills and knowledge they need for their current roles for better job performance and productivity. In contrast, a development plan takes a broader view by improving employees’ skills, knowledge, and expertise over time to prepare them for future roles and responsibilities.
• Purpose: Training closes skill gaps quickly so employees can be effective in their roles. Development, on the other hand, builds potential and cultivates qualities that will help employees lead, innovate, and adapt to new challenges.
• Duration: Training is a short-term commitment. It often involves structured sessions that occur over a few days or weeks. Development is an ongoing process that incorporates continuous learning opportunities as employees advance in their careers.
• Application: Training is hands-on and practical, with employees engaging in workshops, training lessons, and exercises that mimic real job scenarios. Development is more varied and might include mentoring relationships, leadership programmes, and self-directed learning so employees can explore areas of interest and develop new competencies.
• Approach: Training is often top-down, where management identifies skills needed and structures the programme accordingly. It usually includes large groups and is led by trainers or subject matter experts. Development encourages a more collaborative effort, involving employees in their growth journey and allowing them to pursue learning that aligns with their career aspirations.
• Evaluation: Training is easier to measure—think tests, certifications, or direct performance metrics. Development is trickier to quantify because it’s about long-term growth. Its success is seen in how well employees adapt to new roles or how prepared they feel for the next step in their careers.

Why Training and Development Matters

In the past, when jobs and technology were simpler, there wasn’t much need for employees to upskill. But in today’s fast-changing environment, businesses face more pressure to adjust everything—from their products and services to how they’re made. Jobs are also evolving, and so are the skills needed to do them. This is especially true in sales. As a result, the need for training and development has grown to keep up with these changes, paving the road to organisational success.

Here are reasons why they’re essential:

Increase Productivity

A new sales rep usually takes at least 10 months to be fully productive, making training and development more important than ever. It equips sales reps with product knowledge, industry insights, and best practices to effectively engage prospects and work more efficiently. In turn, they can better understand customer needs, overcome objections, and confidently close deals.

Leadership Development and Employee Growth

Providing mentorship and leadership training allows you to cultivate effective managers who inspire and guide their teams while enhancing the skills and knowledge of those already in leadership roles. It creates a culture of continuous learning, which motivates employees to embrace development opportunities and strive for excellence.

Attract and Retain Skilled Talent

Retaining talent has always been one of the biggest challenges in the workforce. After all, replacing employees can cost between $25,000 and $50,000 in lost productivity, customer dissatisfaction, and recruitment and training expenses.

Investing in learning and development programmes can help you avoid this loss and make teams feel valued and empowered. When employees see opportunities for personal and professional growth, they are more likely to stay longer. In fact, companies with a strong learning culture see a 57% employee retention rate. This focus on growth also attracts high-achieving talent, making it easier to build and retain a team of top performers.

Improve Adaptability

Training and development helps employees stay innovative and adaptable to changes in market conditions, company objectives, or even their roles. When regularly updated with new tools, technologies, and industry trends, they feel more prepared for any change that may come their way. They also learn to think critically and find creative solutions, which is essential in sales.

Boost Bottom Line

While training and development require significant time, money, and resources, the long-term benefits make it well worth the effort. In fact, companies prioritising formal training programmes tend to generate 218% more income per employee than those that don’t. That is because well-trained employees are more skilled, productive, and engaged, setting your business up for long-term success.

Examples of Training and Development in Sales

Training and development come in several formats, allowing companies to adjust to employee learning styles and business needs. A mixed approach can provide employees with valuable in-person interaction with peers while adapting to remote learners’ schedules and locations.

Let’s explore different examples of training and development in sales:

Training

• Product training: Sales reps should know your product or service inside and out, from its features, benefits, pricing, and use cases. That way, they can effectively demonstrate its value and provide tailored solutions.
• Industry knowledge: Knowing industry trends and competitor SWOT helps sales teams understand what they are against. This helps them engage in meaningful conversations with prospects and reposition your product or service more effectively based on customer needs.
• Sales skills: Mock sales calls and role-playing sessions can be used to improve essential sales skills, such as prospecting, objection handling, and closing deals.
• Sales tools and technology: Technology makes sales reps’ lives easier. They should understand your CRM systems, analytics tools, and how to use your sales enablement platform. Sales organisations that rely on technology to support sales training are 50% more likely to improve quota attainment.
• Sales management: Training can help new or aspiring sales managers learn how to lead a sales team, set goals, and inspire sales performance. This should include forecasting, people management, and team coaching methods.
• Soft skills training: This emotional intelligence training focuses on sales rep interpersonal skills, like communication, negotiation, relationship building, and empathy, which will help build rapport with customers and navigate difficult conversations.
• Compliance training: Compliance is necessary in many regulated industries, including banking, government, and healthcare. Sales reps should understand the laws, regulations, and policies their customers must follow, such as HIPAA and data privacy standards.
• Onboarding: Onboarding is the first part of an employee’s training and development experience with your company. It integrates new employees into the company, its culture, and their roles. A structured onboarding programme can make a big difference in new hire success and employee engagement since 69% of workers are likelier to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding.

Development

• Mentoring and coaching: Ongoing guidance from managers or more experienced peers supports career growth and upskilling. A senior leader may mentor a sales rep by reviewing sales calls and providing feedback on deals and career challenges.
• Leadership development programme: High-potential team members may participate in leadership programmes that allow them to shadow current leaders or take certification courses on sales management.
• Performance reviews: Regular, quarterly, or annual reviews help employees understand their progress, set goals, and receive feedback on challenges. This keeps employee development aligned with career goals and company needs.
• Career path planning: This helps employees understand the potential for growth within the organisation and the steps they need to take to achieve their career goals. Career paths might include moving to senior or executive roles, such as sales manager, team leader, or director. Job rotations: Some organisations offer opportunities for employees to experience different roles, such as spending time in customer support to better understand customer needs. This exposure can help sales reps, refine their tactics and improve their approach based on real experiences.

10 Methods Used for Training and Development

Training and development methods offer unique benefits depending on audience needs, company culture, and workplace. Below are some of the most popular methods and how to apply them:

1. Instructor-led, in-person

Traditional, instructor-led training involves a trainer or subject matter expert guiding employees through the training material, usually in a classroom setting. This method allows for real-time interaction, direct feedback, and hands-on learning, making it ideal for leadership, technical skills, and compliance training. Keep in mind that a study by Carnegie Mellon University highlights that active engagement and hands-on approaches improve outcomes over passive lectures.

2. Virtual, e-learning

Virtual learning is ideal for distributed teams and is currently the primary training method for many organisations due to its flexibility and cost savings. In this approach, training sessions are delivered online, either live (such as through webinars) or pre-recorded (through modules on e-learning platforms). It comes with interactive features like polls, quizzes, and simulations to practice pitching, listening, questioning, and negotiating. Virtual training is effective for topics that require frequent updates, such as product knowledge and sales tools training.

Sales training platforms, such as Highspot, enhance virtual training by offering features like AI-generated mini quizzes, 30+ sales methodology partner integrations, and curated dashboards, helping reps meaningfully engage with customers.

3. Hybrid

Blended learning combines in-person and online methods to address diverse learning styles and schedules. Employees can engage in hands-on activities while accessing e-learning modules and virtual whiteboards for more flexible learning. This method is popular for development programmes where regular check-ins are necessary.

4. Self-directed learning

On-demand videos and knowledge libraries allow employees to learn independently and access information at the moment. This ‘pull-learning’ approach can be combined with other group methods to ensure collaboration and camaraderie.

5. On-the-job training

On-the-job training lets employees learn by getting hands-on experience with real tasks. It often includes shadowing experienced colleagues, performing tasks under supervision, or rotating through different roles. Its goal is to help employees master tasks more quickly.

On-the-job training follows the 70-20-10 rule:

• 70% of learning happens through real experiences;
• 20% through interactions with others, and
• 10% through traditional training, like instructor-led sessions.

6. Coaching

Coaching is an ongoing development method, typically with a supervisor, mentor, or senior team member guiding the employee on specific tasks and responsibilities. This helps identify skill gaps and improve performance through personalised learning opportunities. It’s more structured and goal-oriented than other methods, with regular feedback sessions that help employees improve and learn new skills, as well as overcome challenges.

7. Mentoring

Mentorship pairs employees with experienced colleagues for guidance and overall growth. Mentors offer advice, share knowledge, and provide guidance based on their experiences, helping mentees navigate career challenges and explore growth opportunities. Mentorship is known to improve career satisfaction and outcomes. Even the mentors have higher job satisfaction from the experience.

8. Adaptive learning

Adaptive learning uses AI and data to tailor the learning experience. It adjusts the material, difficulty, and speed based on the individual’s performance and learning style. This method is especially useful for continuous professional development and technical training.

9. Workshops and seminars

Short, focused sessions allow concentrated learning, collaboration, and hands-on ways to apply what you learn. Workshops are more interactive, involving group activities, role-playing, and practical exercises. Seminars, on the other hand, are more lecture-based and can accommodate larger audiences. These methods are often used for skill-building, knowledge sharing, or introducing new initiatives within the organisation.

10. Microlearning

Microlearning delivers bite-sized content that employees can complete in a short amount of time, such as quick video tutorials, infographics, or short quizzes. This method is ideal for teaching single skills or concepts and is particularly effective for busy employees who can learn in short bursts. Microlearning is often used to reinforce training, improve retention, and provide just-in-time information for tasks.

Challenges in Training and Development

Despite major investments, many businesses struggle to see results from training and development. Gartner reports that 77% of sellers face task efficiency issues even with training, and 82% of leaders say enablement must evolve to meet revenue goals. This is why training and development must start on day one.

To maximise success, organisations must address common challenges that interfere with outcomes.

• Budget constraints: The costs associated with training programmes—whether it’s hiring external trainers, purchasing materials, or investing in technology—can quickly add up. Companies face limitations on how much they can invest in development plans without impacting other business areas. Virtual and e-learning options may be a cost-effective alternative, allowing employees to participate and reduce travel expenses remotely.
• Keeping employees engaged: Even the best sales training programmes can fall flat if employees aren’t motivated or find the material uninteresting. They may also tune out or even view training as a waste of time if the sessions are too long or disconnected from their day-to-day tasks. A report by Training Industry highlights active learning elements, such as discussion breaks, polls, and interactive tools, to help participants feel a part of the action.

Overcoming the most common challenges is not easy, but with creative thinking and early planning, you can balance cost with quality.

A practical training and development strategy requires a holistic, ongoing commitment that empowers your sales team and develops as your business and industry grow and change. By prioritising immediate skill-building and long-term development, you create a team ready to meet today’s challenges and prepared to lead in the future. Your organisation can reduce turnover, enhance productivity, and keep top talent engaged with a balanced approach that includes diverse methods, engaging content, and continuous feedback.

Wherever your team is on its growth journey, leveraging the right tools like Highspot’s sales training platform ensures your sales reps can access the resources they need whenever and wherever they need them.

Request a Highspot demo today.