Independent Solar’s Mission: Building a Team of Solar Experts – Recruiting the Best in the Solar Industry

Getting solar energy systems into as many qualifying homes as possible is a mission that drives professionals across diverse fields and industries. From the people who design and manufacture those systems to the government and regulatory bodies whose decisions can help popularize them, it takes the effort of a lot of people to make sure our energy supply doesn’t hurt the environment, is affordable, and allows for a degree of self-sufficiency — all of which are a hallmark of solar energy.

However, it’s companies such as Independent Solar whose work is to bring energy to the consumer literally. Founded in 2016 as Independent Solar and with a history of more than 20 years as Havasu Solar, this company has been on a mission to bring more transparency, integrity, and a better customer experience to the industry.

“Sizing a system and making it compatible with your home and your family’s usage is the most important thing you can do in selling solar, and very few people do it,” says Randy French, the founder of Independent Solar. “So people do a minor amount of research after a point of sale, they see this is the wrong system for them, or they’re being overcharged.”

The discrepancy stems from the industry’s willingness to rely on salespeople given low training and support and sent out to make quick sales. And because the customers who feel cheated by the salespeople often go after the installer — the person who didn’t negotiate the system with them — it created tension within the industry, compacting the trouble.

For Randy French and his team at Independent Solar, ensuring people are hired with a long-term perspective is the start of fixing this problem. Instead of burning through salespeople and those salespeople burning through a customer base, Independent Solar is interested in creating relationships, both within the company and with the customers, based on transparency and understanding, with the ultimate goal of building trust.

So when the company sends a sales representative to go into a home and sell a solar system, and that sales representative comes up with a preliminary system design, Independent Solar ensures that professionals review the design before the client gets to sign off on it.

That way, everyone wins — the salesperson knows they’ve sold something that fits the client’s needs. The installer knows they won’t get into any trouble with the client. And the client gets to experience how a company that wants to last for decades treats its customers.

“The problem with the industry is that it was all empty promises. But we give you a document that shows you — this is the system. This is how much it is going to produce. This is how much you consumed last year,” French explains. “And it’s holding your hand through the process. And when you’re done, you know that this is what’s going to be installed.”

Independent Solar started as a regional company in Arizona and Nevada, but it wants to bring its vision of solar done right to even more states. Recently, the company announced its plans to move to Texas and Florida. It’s also been present in Home Depots through a partnership with Sunnova — another significant vote of confidence. With its solar sales representatives licensed through Mentis, a company that does tremendous work on improving ethics and consumer protections in the industry, Independent Solar stands out as a good choice not only for its clients but also for the people it hires.