We started our company in search of a little piece of heaven.

I wanted to work with professional firms.

I wanted to achieve four things: to earn money; to help them earn money; to help them provide a better client service; and to stop them wasting money.

It must be heaven, after all everyone would win.Of the four, the easiest to achieve was the first.

The hardest was the last.

This was partly because I was not as aware as I should have been, but largely because the firms of accountants with which I was working would not let me.Belsey and Marsh have recently produced a report which indicated that most accountancy firms are not gaining what they should from potential synergies between disciplines.

They are not making the most of regular sales opportunities such as audit debriefs.

They are poor sellers and intransigent or weak negotiators.

And they are spending large amounts of money on publicity and training with little effect.

I strongly suspect that the same is about to happen to many law firms.Why should that be? After all law firms are made up of bright, highly educated, carefully selected people.

They understand the need to gain more and better business.

So why does that understanding and training not lead to results?Brightness is often the first problem.

Professionals learn too easily.

The new knowledge comes quickly and seems obvious, but knowledge must not be equated with skill.

Many are blind to the fact that developing skills takes a long time and requires some difficult, uncomfortable practice.Education can also be a problem.

Many have a love of logic and a 'right answer' mentality which is appropriate in their early days of education, and then during their professional training and life as a junior.

But it equips them badly for persuasion, and for the probabilities versus certainties of business life.Next, they are selected as people who are good at exams, who have chosen to spend their formative years in some seclusion and in the company of books, documents and data, learning to keep their heads down.

This is the absolute antithesis to being comfortable with - and so predisposed to - open, explorative, proactive client contact.This knowledge that they are bright, have succeeded in education, and have become one of the selected few usually leads to a real and justified sense of confidence.

However, this confidence can leak out of the area in which it is justified.

Then it is seen and felt as arrogance.That confidence leads also to a tendency for professionals to think they know all the answers.

It is a common experience of mine, for example, that when they have defined a training need, they tend to tell any prospective supplier how to do it - the length, the format, the media.

There is a reluctance to work as an equal partner and to accept advice.Another result of this arrogance is a refusal to believe the simple explanation when their selling attempts go wrong.

Rarely are they likely to consider it might have been their lack of skills.

I have often heard professionals claiming 'the chemistry was wrong'.

But what is human chemistry if it is not a reaction to each other's behaviour?The culture and histo ry of firms do not help the situation either.

Though no longer true, in the past hours have been easily charged, with clients thought of as permanent and somewhat in your debt, and not 'customers' - demanding, choosy and deserving of care and attention.The profession generally has little understanding of selling and negotiating.

People even avoid that first word, and prefer the unhelpful blanket terms 'marketing' or 'business development'.

These words do not focus activity.In many firms the espoused values, 'we should all, at all levels, be out there seeking and grasping business opportunities' are not matched by behaviour, particularly of the most influential people.

Partners quietly, or even openly, let it be known that 'so and so is my client, so back off please'.

They are paying lip-service to the values.An insurance company I know of was fed up with too many low value and short-lived 'sales' and its rather pushy image and decided to move up-market.

It talked of developing a consultative style, it trained reps to be truly customer focused, to identify and sell only what was right.

They returned to work equipped and enthused.

They were greeted by line managers who uttered versions of: 'Right, now you're back, get out there and sign up the punters.' They did just that, as they had always done.

The line managers' behaviour did not match the company's espoused values.The other aspect of that story involves rewards.

Those reps knew only too well who rewarded them.

The line managers' behaviour in turn had been shaped by years of being rewarded on the basis of number of policies signed-up, not value or durability.There is a clear parallel here with professional firms.

Everyone is 'on-the-clock'.

What is valued and rewarded most is chargeable hours.

This obsession discourages skills training of adequate length, discourages practice, and discourages the setting-up of client meetings which, for example, partner and manager can use with the goal of developing their skills as well as their business.Firms that truly want to increase the amount and long-term effectiveness of their staff's selling behaviour will encounter several problems.Making sure that people know that sales and negotiation are important simply will not work if staff do not particularly like the prospect of doing it, if they do not know how to, or if they do not see some personal benefit in doing it.One-off sales and negotiation courses will not work.

Selling and negotiating are not just a matter of talking loud and fast.

Reorganisation aimed at cross-functional fertilisation will not work if there is partner protectionism, or the fear of unskilled colleagues 'fouling my patch'.Additionally, telling other disciplines what you do will not work if they do not understand where, how and why you can help their clients' business.Success depends on knitting all those strands together, and being clear about where you are starting from.

You need to look at who has been recruited and promoted and how people are rewarded both formally and informally in order to uncover and address the real attitudes to selling.

A longer term view of skills development must be taken.

Skills do not come fast and are not learned in one go.

'The training course' must not be institutionalised.

One large firm gave more attention to whether the trainer and trainees fitted into their training centre regime than whether the training was having an effect.Finally, you must work in partnership with any consultants.

Demand and measure results, ensure they understand the legal world and partners hips, but accept that they have an expertise of their own.