diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index c7124673486..a66f5b1e851 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -28,7 +28,8 @@ else
 ASCII2MAN = @echo "ERROR: AsciiDoc 'a2x' command is not installed but is required to build $(MANPAGES)" && exit 1
 endif
 
-SITELIB = $(shell python -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()")
+PYTHON=python
+SITELIB = $(shell $(PYTHON) -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()")
 
 # VERSION file provides one place to update the software version
 VERSION := $(shell cat VERSION)
@@ -118,13 +119,13 @@ clean:
 	rm -rf docs/js
 
 python:
-	python setup.py build
+	$(PYTHON) setup.py build
 
 install:
-	python setup.py install
+	$(PYTHON) setup.py install
 
 sdist: clean docs
-	python setup.py sdist -t MANIFEST.in
+	$(PYTHON) setup.py sdist -t MANIFEST.in
 
 rpmcommon: sdist
 	@mkdir -p rpm-build