It's Not Slow, You're Just Quiet

This column originally ran in the Williston Graphic.

It's Slow Right Now.

If I had a dollar for every time a business owner in Williston told me, "It's just slow right now," I wouldn't need to write this column.

I hear it at the coffee shop, at Chamber events, in my inbox and in the comments of every Facebook post asking people to shop local. And I get it. Some months the phone doesn't ring. The parking lot looks thin. You start doing math at 2 a.m.

If you're struggling right now, that's real, and I'm not brushing it off. But I'm going to say something that might make a few of you mad: a lot of the time, it isn't the economy. It's that nobody heard from you.

I've been doing marketing since 2001 and working with businesses in the Bakken since 2013. I've watched this town boom, bust and boom again. And here's the pattern I keep seeing. When things get slow, the businesses that go quiet get quieter. The ones that get louder, smarter and a little braver come out the other side with a bigger share of the pie.

So let's talk about how to be one of those.

So Is the Economy Actually Slow?

Here's the weird part. On paper, the oil side of things isn't bad. Oil prices have been elevated most of this year, and in early October the national rig count hit its highest level since spring of 2024, about 10% above where it was a year ago according to Reuters via BOE Report.

So why does Main Street feel sleepy?

Because high oil is great for the patch and rough on the household budget. People are paying more at the pump, more for groceries, more for everything. When people feel squeezed, they don't stop spending. They get picky. They spend on the businesses they trust, the ones they remember and the ones that make it easy.

That's the whole game right now. You're not competing against the economy. You're competing for the money people are still choosing to spend.

And the numbers back up what you're feeling. In the second quarter of 2026, taxable sales across North Dakota grew almost 4%, and retail grew 4.4%. Fargo was up 3.6%. Jamestown was up 5.5%. Williston? Down 0.2% according to the ND Office of State Tax Commissioner. Oil and gas spending dropped 8.8% statewide that quarter as prices bounced around, and a town like ours always feels that first.

Now here's the part that should sting a little. Just up the road, Crosby's taxable sales jumped 49%, and Divide County was up almost 45%. Some of that is big project work, not shoppers. But it proves the money in this corner of the state is moving. The question is whether it's moving through your door.

The 5 Ps, Williston Edition

Every marketing class teaches the 5 Ps. Most business owners nod along and never use them. Here's how they actually apply to a business in northwest North Dakota.

1. Product: Are you still selling what people want? Your menu, your service list, your inventory. When was the last time you cut something? Slow seasons are the perfect time to look at what isn't moving and stop paying to keep it around. Then ask your best customers one question: "What do you wish we offered?" You'll be surprised how often the answer is something easy.

2. Price: Stop discounting. Seriously. When things get slow, the first instinct is a sale. But constant discounts teach customers to wait for the next one, and they eat the margin you need to survive. Instead of lowering the price, raise the value. Bundle something. Add a guarantee. Throw in the extra that costs you little and means a lot to them.

3. Place: Be open when your customers are free. This is Williston. A big chunk of our town works 12-hour shifts and rotations. If you're open 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, you are closed every single time a huge part of your market has time to shop. Try one late night a week or a Sunday and track what happens. "Place" also means online. If your Google listing has the wrong hours, you're closed even when you're open.

4. Promotion: Show up in more than one place. One Facebook post a week is not a marketing plan. People need to see you multiple times, in multiple places, before they act. That's print, social, email, your storefront, your sign, your truck, your Google listing and word of mouth all saying the same thing. Consistency beats cleverness every time.

5. People/Customer Service: Your team is your marketing. You can spend thousands on ads and lose it all with one employee who doesn't look up from their phone. The person answering your phone, ringing up the sale, or showing up at the job site is your brand. Train them like it.

Things Nobody Else Will Tell You

These cost little or nothing. Most businesses skip them anyway.

Secret shop yourself. Call your own business on a Tuesday afternoon. Send a message through your website. Fill out your own contact form. Time how long it takes to hear back. If it's more than a few hours, that's where your customers are going: to whoever answered first.

Ask "how did you hear about us?" every single time. Write it down. In 30 days you'll know exactly what's working and what you're wasting money on.

Update your Google Business Profile this week. Real hours, holiday hours, fresh photos (not from 2016) and a reply to every review, good and bad. It's free, and it's often the first thing people see before they ever find your website.

Make friends with the business next door. Cross-promote. Share a punch card. Hand out each other's coupons. Two small businesses working together can reach twice the people for the same effort.

Market to the rotation. Plenty of families here have someone on a two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off schedule. Days off are when the spending happens. A "welcome home" deal or a family night aimed at those weeks speaks directly to how this town actually lives.

Write thank-you notes. By hand. Nobody does it anymore, which is exactly why it works. Ten notes a week to your best customers will do more than a month of boosted posts.

Put your face on it. People in a town like ours buy from people, not logos. Let customers see the owner. Tell them why you started. It builds the kind of trust no ad can buy.

Shovel your sidewalk first. I'm serious. In January, a cleared lot and a warm entrance are marketing. If getting to your door is a hassle, people will find a door that isn't.

The Part Some of You Won't Like

I love this community. That's exactly why I'm going to be honest. And I'm not preaching from the sidelines here. I've made most of these mistakes in my own business at one point or another.

Shop local only works when local gives people a reason. I believe in shopping local, and I'll keep saying it. But nobody owes you their business just because you're down the street. People shop local when local is easier, friendlier, or better. Give them a reason that isn't guilt.

Stop posting "support us or we'll close." I'm not pointing at anyone, and I know it comes from a real place. But to a customer, it reads like a sinking ship. People want to back a winner. Show them what's exciting, not what's desperate.

Cutting marketing first is the most expensive way to save money. When sales dip, the ad budget is usually the first thing to go. That's like turning off the engine because you're low on gas. The businesses that keep showing up during slow times are the ones customers remember when things pick back up.

Your nephew probably shouldn't run your social media. Being good at TikTok isn't the same as knowing how to sell your business. If your marketing is something someone does "when they have time," it's going to look like it.

"Best kept secret" is not a compliment. If people keep telling you that, it means your work is great and your marketing isn't. Secrets don't pay the rent.

Sometimes slow means something needs to change. Your hours, your prices, your service, your storefront, your attitude. The economy is an easy thing to blame because you can't fix it. The good news? Most of what's actually slowing you down, you can fix.

Get Louder

Here's your homework. Pick three things from this column and do them before the end of the month. Not ten. Three. Secret shop yourself, fix your Google listing and start asking every customer how they found you. That alone will tell you more about your business than any economic forecast.

Williston has always been a town that figures it out. We've been through the booms and the busts, and we're still here. The businesses that make it through slow seasons aren't always the biggest or the best funded. They're the ones that refuse to go quiet.

So don't go quiet. Get louder.

Jessica Delvo is the managing editor of the Williston Graphic and the owner of Veridian North Media, a marketing agency in downtown Williston. She has been in marketing since 2001.