Life at IGS: Meet Andrew Kaufman
Since joining the 1,000-sale club during his first year with IGS Energy, Andrew Kaufman has continued to grow in our sales organization. He shares what he enjoys most about life at IGS.
Since joining the 1,000-sale club during his first year with IGS Energy, Andrew Kaufman has continued to grow and explore new areas of our organization. “I'm kind of the residential sales journeyman,” he shared. After trying on many different hats in his 7 years with IGS, Andrew’s now happily at home in our solar sales division — and appreciates the relationships he’s built with the colleagues who’ve accompanied him on his journey.
“When you work here, it's very much a family that you belong to,” said Andrew, manager, residential rooftop solar. “We have a lot of smart people throughout the team; everybody really takes their job seriously, has a high level of expertise, and is knowledgeable. To interact with people like that daily is really rewarding, but then they care to see you succeed, too.”
A major foodie with a culinary passion, Andrew’s also been cooking up a buffet of ideas to better serve customers throughout residential sales. Here, he shares his recipe for success at IGS.
Charting his course
I joined IGS in January 2017. Prior to that, I’d been working in a medical research office, and I was considering becoming a pharmaceutical sales rep.
I had an opportunity to interview with IGS Energy’s Dan Hromada, who was at the time the market manager in Beachwood, Ohio. Ironically, Dan had also made a transition from medical sales when he joined IGS. He really sold me on the opportunity here, what a future could look like with IGS, and painted a great image of what I could be a part of.
I started as a home energy consultant in Beachwood, then became a team lead in Westlake, and then went to Akron to become the market manager. From there, I joined the inside sales team as a manager. In January 2023, I joined the Residential Solar Dealer team as the sales manager.
Sunnyside up
The primary reason I wanted to move into the solar space was the changing landscape of our industry. In my role, in addition to ensuring our sales reps are prepared with the necessary sales skills, I’m also helping them better understand the solar industry and this technology, and how solar supports not only homeowners but also is helping stabilize the national energy grid.
The right cultural fit
One word that sums up the IGS culture, for me, is “impactful.” There's a personal impact, an employee impact, and a community impact.
At IGS, there's always a new way of engaging our people: a new group, a new initiative, a new development opportunity. An example is the company’s prioritization of mental health and the support offered through the BetterYet program and subscriptions to Headspace. As a sales manager and a salesperson myself, I have a lot of experience with the importance of supporting mental health.
There are so many groups, events, and programs that IGS puts together strictly focused on ensuring our employees are happy, healthy, feel trusted, and feel heard. You can really tell IGS values us, and when we feel that we want to come to work every day. I've worked with other companies, and I've never felt a sense of value and belonging like what IGS has provided.
A balanced diet of work and life
When I first started at IGS, I went into the office daily, the same as all other field sales reps. Since the pandemic and our shift to more remote work, I've been working from home. From a physical and mental health standpoint, working from home has done wonders for me and my family.
I’ve repurposed my mornings for working out, which I wasn’t able to do before. I've kind of got this personal streak going where I've held myself accountable for 4 years to do something active — like get out and walk my dog, North, every morning.
I'm a big food nut, so I cook every night. I wasn't cooking as much as I do now until I started working from home. My wife, Jenna, is in the medical industry, and she had to go into the office during the pandemic. I had no excuse to not cook dinner when I was signing off from work in my kitchen. I've probably cooked dinner at least four times a week, sometimes five, for the past 4 years. I've gotten pretty good at certain recipes.
But aside from remote work, IGS is generous with paid time off, as well. You get total support and encouragement to take your personal time here. My wife and I travel a lot, and a big part of our free time is spent with our dog. We like taking her hiking and paddle boarding with us.
A fruitful future
Over the last several years, we've evolved how we view our role in the industry and the role we're going to play for customers — being the energy manager instead of simply an energy provider for homeowners and businesses. As the industry landscape changes, I see the type of innovative product offerings that come with this vision, and it really gets me excited.
When I first joined IGS, I didn’t quite know what kind of purpose and passion I would end up developing for this work. It took time, but seeing how much the energy landscape has changed in the last 7 years, and what we help customers with, it has really enlightened me to what I’m a part of and what impact my team — and the company as a whole — can have.