From time to time, we highlight people we believe to be overachievers in their industry and examples of what comes from living life with the 7 F’s of True Success in mind. Today we profile Alan Pizzitola, president of Business Interiors, Inc., a contract furnishings firm headquartered in Birmingham, AL.

Alan started Business Interiors in 1987 after a successful career at another contract furniture company where he started as a new salesperson right out of college and moved up to president some 10 years later. Under Alan’s leadership, Business Interiors does more than $30 million in revenue and has three offices in Alabama.

Alan’s track record of success started when he was a sports standout at his local Catholic high school. A first-team basketball player, he decided to give up football his junior year to focus on his dream sport. But the new head football coach convinced him to play football his senior year. That year he excelled on both the court and the field.

He went on to enjoy a memorable and rewarding sports career in college (we’ll share these fascinating details next week when we continue this series). We will say this now: Alan always gives 100 percent to anything he does. By his senior year at the University of Alabama, he was well known on the football field—named All SEC and an Academic All-American.

We sat down with Alan recently to talk about some of the life lessons he’s learned over the years. Here are a few of his ideas for success in sales and in life. We’ll have more next week:

“Alan-isms”

Turn your customers into friends. Life is short. You spend an enormous amount of time establishing long-term relationships with customers, so they should be your friends, too. Get to know ‘em.

Never make a cold call. Always find some type of connection before you make the first call. Find “common ground.” Get a referral from someone you both know. Cold calls are the hard way to do business. Getting referred in is the shortest path to success. Use every resource you have.

Selling time is sacred. Work this way: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. is reserved for clients and new opportunities. Paperwork is for evenings and weekends. Sell when you should, and do the rest later.

Email doesn’t make a good salesperson. You can’t develop a long-term relationship in front of a computer. You do that by telephone and, better yet, in face-to-face meetings.

Return calls. No matter who calls you, return everyone’s telephone calls the same day that you receive them. At the latest, return them the very next day.