Each solicitor spends over five years on their academic studies and a further two years in vocational training.

The Law Society then requires further regular training on an annual basis.

But how much of this time is allocated to acquiring the skills to market and sell those hard-earned legal skills effectively? Most lawyers receive little training in the most important skills for generating work: marketing and selling.There are a large number of skills involved in successful business development.

Organise your thinking about the skills you need to develop by considering the overall business development cycle:The focus of each stage of the cycle is different.

For example, in marketing a message is communicated to many people indirectly, whereas in selling information is exchanged with just one person directly, so the type of activities undertaken often varies.

For example, public speaking, presentation skills and copywriting are skills associated with marketing activities whereas active listening, non-verbal communication, competitive tendering and negotiation are associated with selling.It would be difficult and inappropriate to train every member of the firm in every skill as each individual will have different strengths and preferences.

The following techniques can help identify the marketing and selling skill needs in your firm.-- Plans.

Your practice will have some form of business plan that indicates its goals.

The emphasis of your training programme should focus on equipping people with the skills they need to achieve those goals.-- Major issues.

Firms may want to focus on winning new clients, therefore the skills associated with marketing will be of most interest.

Other firms may be generating leads but may be less successful at converting them into business; the priority should be in developing selling skills.-- Appraisals.

Appraisal systems can be modified to discuss and assess the individual marketing training needs of each fee-earner.

A list of the types of skills involved may prompt fee-earners to indicate training priorities and preferences.-- Questionnaires and discussion groups.

Useful feedback on the type of training required can be obtained by gathering small, mixed groups of fee-earners together to ask them how they might contribute to the business development process if appropriate training were provided.Even the smallest firm will have some internal resources that can be used for training.

For example, there may be one partner who excels at generat ing and maintaining a wide network of contacts.

This partner should be persuaded to take less experienced members of staff out to networking events so they have a chance to see an 'expert' in action.

Similar training can be provided by taking along junior members of the firm to client lunches and meetings.Team discussions which include senior fee-earners from other teams can promote a useful interchange of ideas, experiences and anecdotes that can inspire motivation and confidence in less experienced staff.If your firm is involved in competitive tenders, younger members of the firm should be invited to join the bid team to observe what happens throughout the bidding process.Partners can develop the interest of younger members of the firm by asking them to research and prepare outline marketing plans.

The coaching that partners provide when a document is produced - even if the partner is relatively new to marketing - is often highly beneficial to both parties.A good way to do your own training on client service and development is to ask your senior secretary or receptionist to provide ideas on how the firm can improve.

Similarly, running discussions for the firm's staff (and clients) about how the service can be improved will help train everyone up to the highest standards within the practice.Many people think training involves 'chalk and talk', with a passive audience and an active lecturer.

However, sales and marketing training requires audience participation because, although there is some theory to be learned, most benefit comes from people having the chance to try out and practice new techniques.

If a 'safe' training environment and a supportive facilitator is provided, people's ability to market and sell can be dramatically improved simply by them feeling more confident.Furthermore, selling requires good inter-personal skills: the ability to introduce yourself well, to talk confidently, to observe and react to non-verbal communication, to ask questions, to listen, to persuade and to identify opportunities to take follow-up action.The only way interpersonal skills can be developed is by practice.

Particip-ation can be achieved by working in pairs or groups, watching and discussing videos, acting in role plays, analysing case studies and by formulating an action plan as a result of the training session.An effective way to teach marketing skills is to arrange marketing planning workshops, where a small group of lawyers from the same department develop (with the help of an experienced facilitator) their own plan for the marketing of their practice area.

The theory and skills are effectively transferred and delegates have an action plan to implement at the end of the session.Commercial training organisations, professional associations and consultants provide training that ranges from public courses of several days' duration for many delegates, to specially prepared coaching sessions for a couple of hours for one or two partners.How do you select suitable trainers? One person could be sent to experience a particular course and report back.

A more effective way is to write a description of your training needs and the people who need to be trained, then ask a couple of organisations to indicate how they would provide the training and their costs.Assess the potential trainers in terms of their core skills in marketing, selling and client development and their ability to run effective training sessions.

Most lawyers find marketing and sales training more acceptable where the trainers have a detailed understanding of t he nature of a legal practice.When training has been initiated, some means of measuring the effectiveness of the training should be developed.

For example, training in networking skills might be measured in terms of the increase in the number of useful contacts made at events.

Participants should be asked for their comments on how the training could be improved in the future.Arranging a follow-up meeting for those who attended training will allow delegates to reflect on what they learned and how they put their new skills into practice.