American businesses are among the best run in the world, but Fortune 1000 leaders still haven’t mastered organic growth. They talk a good game about growing their customer base, but then they go back to their offices, shut their doors, and either acquire competitors or—worse yet—cut their prices even further. They do this because they’ve given up on organic growth.

This is all wrong. You don't achieve organic growth through acquisitions or price cutting. You achieve growth by creating many more fully engaged customers—“true believers” in your business.

And you achieve the highest quality growth by getting a lot more business out of your existing customers. Here is a general rule of thumb for you and your strategy teams. Right now, you’re probably doing a maximum of one-third of the business you should be doing with current customers. This means that if you’re doing $2 million in sales, there’s an additional $4 million in low-hanging fruit with your current customers, just waiting to be picked. Same if you’re doing $20 billion in sales—there’s $40 billion of untapped business to be found in your current accounts. So why go out and acquire another company when you can more fully engage what’s right in front of you?

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