Sales Without Targets: The 42-Year Trust Experiment
Can a sales team beat rivals with zero targets? Handelsbanken did it for 42 years using trust and equal profit-sharing — here's what Indian sales leaders can learn.
Yes — a sales team can outperform without targets. In 1972, Swedish bank Handelsbanken deleted budgets, quotas and personal bonuses entirely, and it beat rival banks for 42 straight years on trust and equal profit-sharing alone. With 65% of Indian firms now investing in soft-skill training, the trust-based model deserves a serious look here too.
TL;DR- Handelsbanken removed all sales targets, budgets and bonuses in 1972 — and beat rival banks for 42 straight years.
- Targets often trigger short-term, quarter-end panic selling instead of real customer relationships.
- Trust-based selling replaces quotas with autonomy, transparency and equal profit-sharing for every employee.
- Indian sales teams can borrow the principle without deleting targets overnight — start with how performance is measured.
- The shift works best when it's backed by real sales training, not just a policy memo.
What Is Handelsbanken's "No Sales Targets" Model?
In 1972, Swedish bank Handelsbanken did something almost no company dares to do — it deleted sales targets, budgets and personal bonuses completely. No monthly quotas, no year-end panic, no branch manager chasing numbers. Instead, every branch decided its own priorities, and profits were shared equally among all employees, from trainees to the CEO. The result wasn't chaos — it was 42 straight years of beating rival banks on cost-efficiency and customer satisfaction. It's one of the clearest real-world proofs that pressure and performance aren't the same thing.
Why Do Sales Targets Often Backfire?
Targets are meant to drive performance, but in practice they often drive the wrong behaviour. Salespeople start optimising for the number, not the customer — pushing unnecessary upsells in the last week of the quarter, backdating deals, or chasing easy wins over long-term relationships. Month-end panic becomes a culture in itself, and trust between the sales team and its customers erodes quietly. Handelsbanken's bet was that removing the number removes the panic — and lets people sell the way they'd want to be sold to.
| Aspect | Target-Based Selling | Trust-Based Selling (Handelsbanken Model) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary metric | Monthly/quarterly sales number | Cost-to-income ratio, customer satisfaction |
| Bonus structure | Individual, tied to quota | Equal profit-share for all employees |
| Common failure mode | Quarter-end panic selling, deal-stuffing | Requires strong internal trust culture |
| Manager's role | Chase the dashboard | Coach the conversation |
| Best fit | Transaction-led, commission-heavy sales | Relationship-led, B2B and enterprise sales |
| Handelsbanken result (1972-2014) | - | Beat rival banks for 42 straight years |
Does Trust-Based Selling Actually Work in India?
It's a fair question — Handelsbanken is Swedish, and Indian sales floors run on very different incentive structures. But the underlying principle isn't cultural, it's behavioural: people perform better when they're trusted with judgment instead of policed with quotas. I've seen it inside Indian sales teams too — the ones where managers coach on conversations rather than just chase the CRM dashboard tend to have lower attrition and steadier, not just bigger, numbers. Trust-based selling doesn't mean no accountability; it means accountability built on relationships, not fear.
What Replaces Targets? Metrics That Actually Matter
If not targets, then what? Handelsbanken tracked cost-to-income ratio and customer satisfaction instead of individual sales numbers. For an Indian sales team, that could mean tracking response time, deal quality, repeat business and referral rate instead of just monthly closed value. These metrics reward the behaviour you actually want — service, consistency, relationship depth — rather than a number that can be gamed in the last three days of the month.
How Can Indian Sales Teams Start Reducing Target Pressure?
You don't need to delete targets overnight to borrow the principle. Start by separating how people are measured from how they're paid — decouple bonuses from single-number quotas and add trust and customer-outcome metrics alongside them. Coach managers to review conversations, not just conversion rates. Most teams I work with through our sales training programs see the shift happen faster when it's practiced in real role-play, not just announced in a policy email.
Is a Target-Free Culture Right for Every Industry?
Not universally — commission-heavy, transaction-led businesses (real estate, insurance) lean harder on individual targets by design, and that's fine. But most B2B and relationship-driven sales — corporate accounts, enterprise deals, long sales cycles — actually suit trust-based selling better than they suit quota pressure. The real question isn't "targets or no targets," it's whether your current targets are measuring the behaviour that actually grows the business.
How Sales Training Builds This Culture Faster
Culture shifts don't happen from a memo — they happen when a sales team practices new behaviour together and sees it work. In my corporate training sessions, I use real stories like Handelsbanken's to make the shift tangible: teams role-play trust-based conversations, redesign their own scorecards, and leave with a measurable alternative to the target sheet. If you're rethinking how your sales team is measured, that's a conversation worth having before the next quarter starts — reach out and we'll design a session around it.
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Avinash Chate TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · 11+ yrs experience Avinash has trained Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership development, communication skills, and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Handelsbanken really have zero sales targets?
Yes — starting in 1972, Handelsbanken removed central budgets, sales targets and individual bonuses entirely. Branches set their own priorities, and profit was shared equally across all employees, from trainees to the CEO. The bank ran this way for over 40 years and consistently outperformed competitors on cost-efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Can an Indian sales team really work without targets?
Full target removal is a big cultural shift and isn't right for every business — especially commission-heavy sectors like real estate or insurance. But most B2B and relationship-driven sales teams in India can borrow the underlying principle: measure trust, service quality and repeat business alongside (or instead of) a single closed-number target.
What replaces sales targets if you remove them?
Handelsbanken tracked cost-to-income ratio and customer satisfaction instead of individual quotas. For most Indian sales teams, useful replacements include response time, deal quality, referral rate and repeat business — metrics that reward the behaviour you actually want instead of a number that can be gamed at month-end.
How do I bring this kind of trust-based selling culture to my sales team?
Start small — decouple part of the bonus structure from a single quota, and have managers coach on conversations rather than just the CRM dashboard. It works best when practiced through structured training, not just announced. Write to connect@avinashchate.com or visit avinashchate.com/contact to design a session around it.
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