For those of us who have made selling our career, the world of quotas forces us to break time into logical sections which feed percentages that drive performance and, of course, commissions. Chasing our annual quota means also viewing life in terms of months, quarters and half years. And that magical midpoint of the year, the end of H1 and the beginning of H2, is now staring us down in the 2026 calendar. I love Teddy Roosevelt’s famous quote – “Believe you can and you’re halfway there”. Ah, if only believing was enough. In selling, it must be accompanied by performance, the iconic numbers. And unless we are among the truly fortunate ones who have nailed big H1 deals, we likely see that much 2026 work remains to be done. Much more selling. Outside of increasing our activities, what can we do to improve on an H1 that has likely been filled with good and bad, victories and losses, celebration and disappointment?
I have an idea, one which I have followed throughout my career and one I have shared with countless sales teams to make their summertime truly valuable. The idea requires thinking back to last December and January and that mandatory SWOT analysis you worked on with your team – that age-old process covering the four well-known categories:
Strengths: The internal characteristics that provide you a clear advantage.
Weaknesses: The internal attributes that create disadvantage and limit your ability to achieve your goals.
Opportunities: The positive external factors that maximize your chances of success.
Threats: The negative external factors that threaten your success and increase your vulnerability.
Remember? Of course you do. At least you remember the exercise but perhaps not the content that should have driven H1 strategy. So how do you create an advance from the information clearly laid out on those flip charts to help increase your chances of a successful H2?
Here’s the good news. See that 2026 calendar? There’s still time. Time to maximize your strengths, shore up your weaknesses, take advantage of your opportunities and defend against your threats. Revisiting SWOT, yes, because in the world of prospects, clients, competitors and the like, things have changed in six months, in some cases dramatically. But it’s not only about revisiting SWOT, but about taking it to a more actionable level.
With your previous SWOT findings as your base, revisit them and add knowledge from your H1 history lessons. You can’t get a redo on them, but they can provide extremely insights. And of course, you’ll identify some new SWOT items to consider that weren’t predicted earlier, but your initial findings will give you a great head start. And truth be told, if in fact you never actually conducted the earlier SWOT session, now is the time. Not only though, through traditional SWOT and its planning focus. With half the year gone, planning is not enough. You need real impact to bring SWOT to life – concrete actions to drive real acceleration. H2 beckons and you must act now.
It’s simple, really, like most best practices in sales. Accelerating traditional SWOT is light on theory and very heavy on action. We start by improving on the earlier output and then creating defined actions for each identified SWOT item with each item enhanced through these four critical areas:
1. Action: The principal action to drive improvement.
The outline of a template, or other type of initial progress, dictating real movement, strategy and action.
2. Impact: The effect of the achievement of the results of the action.
Team discussion and consensus determine the expected impact – high, medium or low, in the context of your business model.
3. Accountability: The person accountable for making the action happen.
Several individuals play roles in driving actions, but it’s vital to identify one specifically accountable person. I always strongly suggest using use the popular RACI system to illustrate the clear responsibilities of each person engaged:
R = Responsible – The people who perform the work to get the job done.
A = Accountable – The one person specifically and ultimately accountable.
C = Consulted – The people whose counsel is sought and with whom two-way communication flows.
I = Informed – Those simply kept informed of status and progress. While their input is always welcome, it’s not required.
4. Date: The date by which the action is to be completed.
The realistic date the action will be implemented.
With this updated process completed for all identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, the established actions are then listed by impact level and date, generating a prioritized schedule for attacking the most productive actions first, maximizing improvement in the remaining time. Now that’s a plan for H2 that sales teams can relate to!
And this truly actionable SWOT sales update can deliver value in other types of initiatives as well. In reality, it’s hard to find situations where it doesn’t. But this incredible selling opportunity via the calendar timing to accelerate H2 performance provides a powerful path to real improvement that benefits the entire organization. As Mr. Roosevelt said, “Believe you can and you’re halfway there”. Now, go sell!
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