Chatting with ATD Truck Dealer of the Year Nominee Shawn Trimble Craig
Chatting with ATD Truck Dealer of the Year Nominee Shawn Trimble Craig
Jan 16, 2025
In December, the American Truck Dealers (ATD) announced the nominees for its 2025 Truck Dealer of the Year Award. Sponsored by Procede Software and Trucks, Parts, Service (TPS), ATD's truck dealer award honors dealer executives for their for business and industry leadership, business success and involvement leading in their communities.
For the next two weeks, TPS will continue sharing in-depth conversations with this year's six nominees, detailing how they found their way to the truck dealer business, how they've navigated the industry, their efforts to lead their businesses and more. These conversations will lead up to the announcement of the 2025 ATD Truck Dealer of the Year Award, which will be announced Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, at the ATD Show in New Orleans by Procede Software CEO Larry Kettler and TPS Editor Lucas Deal.
Shawn Trimble Craig, Southwest International Trucks, 2025 ATD Truck Dealer of the Year NomineeThese questionnaires continue with Shawn Trimble Craig, president at Southwest International Trucks.
How did you get into the truck dealer industry?
My dad, Russ Trimble, bought the dealership in 1982. I have been around the International truck brand my entire life. After college, I entered the telecommunications/IT industry, where I spent my career working in leadership positions for large communications companies, including the past 20 years with AT&T.
I decided to join the dealership three years ago, which was a huge career move for me. This change has been the best decision of my life! Both of my sons, Jacob and Josh, also joined the dealership (after college), and the three of us have been a team, learning and embracing the trucking industry. We all attended ATD Academy our first year and the resources and contacts we made and continue to make through ATD have been priceless!!
How have you risen in the industry and your company to reach where you are today?
Upon joining the industry, I aligned with "Women in Navistar/International" joining their board for dealer groups and also started "Women in Southwest" at our dealership. This platform quickly helped me learn my way around International's corporate HQ and enabled me to meet and develop contacts within the industry very quickly. When I started at Southwest, while attending the academy, I worked as VP/Advanced Technologies the first year and then Chief People Officer in year two. In year three I have been in the CEO role. Since my background is in IT and data, a lot of my learning and impact to the company has been around modernizing processes to help us be efficient and customer friendly in the future. I have a very strong leadership team at Southwest, and now eight of our leaders have graduated from the Academy. I learn every day from my team!
What do you like most about being a truck dealer?
The people! There is a very special feel within the dealership, the way the employees treat each other is like family. That is the best part. Also, I love that our people are learning new skills to be successful in the future. As we digitize a lot of our processes, it requires people to get out of their comfort zones, to learn and to grow. Seeing people embrace change in a positive way is very fulfilling to me.
Describe your leadership style. How do you pilot your business?
I am very involved and passionate about the business. I am a leader that believes in bringing the team together and communicating between departments, breaking down old silos. We are better together, if we lead bigger. It is important to collaborate between departments now more than ever. The main goal is the drive more business in our local territory and that can only be done if all departments work together. I believe in recruiting, hiring and retaining the best talent in the industry.
What do you believe is the most important skill or a truck dealer? How have you cultivated that skill?
I have learned that it is very important to have a good relationship with your OEM. To be partnered with them and understand their goals and vision for the future, and be in alignment with them, is key. I was fortunate to start my career in trucking at the same time that Traton bought International. From the beginning I have sought out information, contacts, and leaders within International to align with, to learn from and to share ideas so that we can be prepared to be successful in the future.
I work to cultivate this skill daily. Networking and learning through Linked in and other news sources to stay connected is important. Some people think Linked in is only for job searching but that is not true! It is a great source of information, learning and for connecting. In addition, ATD has really helped me understand the key metrics for success when working with your OEM.
How do you differentiate your business from your competitors?
Our motto is CCC. Can do, Customer, Cooperation. My dad started this motto when he started the Dealership. I have added a fourth C, which is Communication. We differentiate in the DFW market by being a family-owned local business, with a strong brand that focuses on customer relationships. Our people are the differentiators at Southwest!
What is the most difficult part of your job?
This year the most difficult part of my job was in accounting and finance. As our long-standing CFO retired this year, I had to dig deep and really apply and learn the financial metrics of running a dealership so that I could get the right people in the right positions for the future.
Finance and processes have become more dependent on IT and will continue to do so going forward, so it has been important to understand the current data but also build the correct data and processes for the future. This has meant involving our Accounting, Finance and IT team into the larger dealership conversations with fixed ops managers and sales. Getting everyone working together as one team again was challenging but we have made tremendous progress.
How does ATD help you run your business?
ATD has been my number one resource! Since I am newer to the industry, being a part of ATD has been paramount to my success and my learning. I have learned so much from the academy, the instructors, and from the other students and dealers. Also, in going through the classes, it made me realize that it is equally as important to practice and apply the learning.
I have joined 20 groups and so have other employees at Southwest. In addition, they have provided additional opportunities for training at levels and departments within our company. I have continued on with my academy class, forming the first "engage group," where we stayed together to continue learning and helping each other as a group. This has been amazing!
Last year at the ATD show, we sat in a seminar with DMS regarding credit card charges. We met with DMS right after the show, implemented the solution and by first quarter we were saving about $30,000 per month. The list is endless in how ATD has helped me. I would highly recommend getting involved in ATD even if you are a seasoned veteran in the industry. The learnings and connections are ongoing.
Why do you believe you were nominated for the ATD Truck Dealer of the Year Award?
I am very honored to be nominated for ATD Truck Dealer Award. The group of other nominees is really impressive. I feel that I was nominated because of my unique background and skill sets. I had somewhat a clean slate entering the industry. It's taken a lot of grit and hard work for my dad to start this business, and the same for the others that have been doing this for a long time.
But now, in some ways, the industry is really changing, growing, evolving. New skill sets are important for the future, and I think that my passion for driving change and for bringing new approaches to the industry is energizing.
In addition, with my sons being part of GEN Z, it really has been a unique experience and opportunity to learn with and from them. And vice versa. This is something that makes my nomination unique and special for our family and for everyone at Southwest.