Genoa Chamber Ambassador Club

EMBRACING GROWTH

Harris entered the auto industry at age 19, when he began selling cars at Jack Wolf in Belvidere. Over the next 13 years, he rose through the ranks at the dealership from salesperson to sales manager to general manager. He spent the next five years in Rockford as the general manager of Bachrodt on State. Then Harris did something unexpected: he took a break from cars. Harris began a digital marketing company, which he ran for about a year before meeting Alan Browne. That experience in online marketing has served the dealership well. Alan Browne Chevrolet has a presence in several online marketplaces as well as operating its own suite of websites. Four staff members are dedicated solely to working on Internet leads. “It was easy to apply what I was doing in my marketing company to developing a strong Internet presence for the dealership,” Harris said. “That’s the reason we have buyers coming to us from all over the U.S.” In just six years between 2014 and 2020, Alan Browne Chevrolet grew from seven employees to about 50, Harris said. At the same time, sales volume grew from $7 million a year to $26 million a year. Harris said his philosophy on growing his workforce is to find good people first, then build a place for them. “Many of the people we hired were customers first. We like to hire good people when we find them, then we find a place for them,” he said. “I love to see kids have every opportunity, so we’ve employed a lot of the younger generation. We give young people internships to give them some experience and get them off to a good start.” CORVETTE CAPITAL

While Alan Browne Chevrolet prides itself on being able to find almost any kind of preowned car, trucks are the dealership’s bread and butter. Harris said he makes sure to keep a variety of new and preowned heavy duty and light duty trucks in stock. Alan Browne is also one of the area’s leading Chevy dealerships in Corvette sales. Over the past three years, Harris said, the dealership has sold more than 60 Corvettes, including 16 of the 2020 models.