"Three months ago, I made a decision to never publish a hard-copy catalog again," says Jerry Whitlock, who markets himself as The Seal Man on his Web site at www.epm.com. Whitlock is anything but a traditional distributor. He has no warehouse and stocks no products. His entire sales and service staff is comprised of himself and his wife.

Whitlock sells seals and gaskets. He started a seal-making business in his basement in 1978, eventually merged with an Austrian company and grew the company to 67 branches and 300 employees. But he got tired of the daily grind and quit in 1993.

"A lot of people in the sealing and gasket business have a big building, a monument built to themselves," Whitlock says.

Like most distributors, they have a huge inventory. "But if they ran the numbers on their inventory, they'd die because it turns over 1-1/2 times a year instead of the five times they think it does," he says. "They're tying up capital with dead stock on the shelves. I did it. I know. But I don't think they know. I'm not going to do that again. I'm not willing to put inventory on my shelves just to make me fell good when I walk in the warehouse because I've got boxes full of stuff."

Instead, the Seal Man built a virtual inventory on the Internet. He listed his site with search engines so customers can find him when they enter key words such as "seal" or "gasket." When they locate him, Whitlock relies on his own product knowledge and an extensive collection of catalogs, binders and brochures from seal and gasket manufacturers to locate the products the customer needs.

"I know where to buy anything or where to have it made anywhere in the world because I've been in this business for 27 years. If someone calls me with any kind of sealing problem, I might buy three different components from three different manufacturers, make an assembly out of it and send it to him."

Most of the people who access Whitlock's site are engineers who feel comfortable with Internet technology. They tell him they like to use the Internet because it's quicker and easier than sifting through catalogs.

"There seems to be a surge in interest lately from industrial buyers," Whitlock says. "Buyers are using the Net as a reference source of choice in many cases instead of printed catalogs and directories. Many times, I'll get an engineer or a maintenance man on the phone while he is looking at my site."...

..."I'm reading a book called 'The Power of Simplicity,' by Rick Trout," says Whitlock. "One of the things he says is, 'If you are not different, you better have a low price.' I believe that in the industrial distribution business you can make more profit if you are different."

Whitlock is certainly different from the typical industrial distributor. In fact, he thinks of himself more as a marketer than as a distributor. He bridges the gap between the hundreds of small, specialized seal , gasket and component manufacturers in the United States and end-user customers who have problems to solve but don't know where to turn. So they turn to the Seal Man.

"By the end of the summer, I will have the biggest collection of information about seals and gaskets in the world on the Internet," he says.

In that statement, Whitlock reveals the key to his success. He understands that the most important thing he has to offer customers is information. "I sell solutions and I happen to be in the seal business," he says.