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SWOT Analysis Template

Pick what the SWOT is about (your business, a key account, a competitor, a territory or a product line) and fill in the four boxes with the questions under each one. Then pair points into actions with an owner and a date. Print the grid on one page or a report, or load the field sales territory example to see a finished one.

The four boxes, in plain words

Two questions sort every point. Is it inside the thing you are analysing, or outside it? Does it help, or does it hurt?

  • Strengths: internal, helpful

    What you do well and control: relationships, skills, service, stock, price position. Write what customers would say, not what the brochure says.

  • Weaknesses: internal, harmful

    What holds you back and is yours to fix: gaps in coverage, slow follow-up, missing products. The lost deals usually tell you.

  • Opportunities: external, helpful

    Changes around you that you could use: new projects, a competitor pulling out, a growing segment, new rules. You do not cause them, you can act on them.

  • Threats: external, harmful

    Changes around you that could hurt: a cheaper rival, a key buyer leaving, falling demand. Naming them early is the point.

From SWOT to action: the TOWS step

A grid on its own changes nothing. The TOWS step pairs one point from the inside (a strength or weakness) with one from the outside (an opportunity or threat) and asks what you will do about the pair. That gives four kinds of action:

  • SO: strengths and opportunities

    Use a strength to take an opportunity.

  • WO: weaknesses and opportunities

    Fix a weakness so you can take an opportunity.

  • ST: strengths and threats

    Use a strength to counter a threat.

  • WT: weaknesses and threats

    Shrink a weakness so a threat cannot hit it.

The TOWS matrix was described by Heinz Weihrich in "The TOWS Matrix: A Tool for Situational Analysis" (Long Range Planning, 1982).

How to run a SWOT session

A SWOT done by one person is a guess; done with the people who sell, serve and deliver, it is a plan. This agenda fits 60 minutes.

  1. 1. Subject and goal

    5 min

    Say what the SWOT is about and what decision it feeds: next year's territory plan, an account plan, a pricing call.

  2. 2. Strengths and weaknesses

    15 min

    Everyone writes points alone for five minutes, then reads them out. Merge duplicates. Ask for evidence: a won or lost deal, a customer's words.

  3. 3. Opportunities and threats

    15 min

    Same again for the outside world. Keep internal points out of these two boxes.

  4. 4. Mark the impact

    5 min

    Mark each point high, medium or low. The report view sorts by it, so the top of each box is what matters most.

  5. 5. Pair points into actions

    15 min

    Take the high-impact points and pair them: SO, WO, ST, WT. Write one action per pair worth acting on.

  6. 6. Owners and dates

    5 min

    Every action gets one owner and a date, or it does not go on the list.

60 minutes

Revisit the grid when something big changes: a new competitor, a lost key account, a new territory split.

Comparing several competitors side by side? Use the competitor analysis template; it also builds a sales battlecard.

Choosing between options once you have the actions? Weigh them in the decision matrix template.

Doing a SWOT on a key account? Carry the actions into your account plan.

More for sales planning: key account management, sales playbook, win-loss analysis.

Record the planning session. Fill the grid from what the team said.

The points on a SWOT come out of a conversation: the rep who lost the deal, the manager who heard about the new project. Record the planning session with ParrotNotes and you get the transcript, a summary and the action items, so the grid and the actions match what the team actually said. Free for 100 minutes of recording a month.

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