don't try to do this
$ make action value1 value2
instead create script:
#! /bin/sh
# rebuild if necessary
make
# do action with arguments
action "$@"
and do this:
$ ./buildthenaction.sh value1 value2
for more explanation why do this and caveats of makefile hackery read my answer to another very similar but seemingly not duplicate question: Passing arguments to "make run"