Do your executive team and board know how much new (qualified) pipeline the company needs to generate per month? (This is the #2 most important metric to track, right after closed business.) Is the “new pipeline generated per month” number tracked at the board level? Is there a common language, common definitions, for "prospects," "leads" and "opportunities"? One of the biggest problems is usually miscommunication and misunderstanding of terms and metrics between executives and directors. At least if your executive team and board are aware of the pipeline gap — the amount of pipeline required to hit your results, and likely places it will come from — you can begin to be more realistic in both your goals and plans to execute on those goals. You will also be less likely to break trust with your team and investors by missing your goals as a surprise, i.e., without really knowing why.