Who changes? Sales or Proposal Team?
Almost always: Fix problems downstream by changing your process. Don’t try to force others to accommodate your process. This is too risky. For instance, if you are having a delivery problem, the issue must be solved at the preceding steps, maybe by moving up deadlines. (Just try asking FedEx to swing by an hour later for your parcel.)
Same goes for the upstream sales process. When your hit rate is underwater, the sales process needs to change to accommodate the process of writing a winning proposal. Not, as is often thought, that the proposal process needs to change to accommodate the vagaries of the sales process.
In a complex sale, the proposal is on the 
critical path and needs to be handled with the same care as other steps in the sales process. Whatever worked, back when the proposal was merely a supplement to a consultative sales process, isn’t enough once the proposal becomes key to your sales process. This is a common trap for firms moving from consultative sales to complex sales. They all think the problem is limited to the proposal process. Not quite.
In a consultative sale, the proposal is not on the critical path. The proposal in a consultative sale is merely a codification of the agreement negotiated by the sales team.
However, the proposal in a complex sale must convince a group of people that the recommendation of the sales team is the best offer to solve a variety of problems. Without the proposal succeeding, the sale will fail. In a complex sale, the proposal is on the critical path.
Technical firms can see this best by laying out the critical path of your sales process. The exercise is illuminating. Place all the steps of your sales process either on or feeding into the critical path. What is necessary? Those steps are on the critical path. What enhances a step on the critical path? Those steps run alongside the critical path.
What order are the steps performed? What is needed for each downstream step? Is this being accomplished in the upstream step?
In many cases, the fix for a problem is made in the previous steps, rather than the step where failure occurs.
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