Back when Dennis Berry, 56, was publisher of the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," he spent a lot of time thinking about where to find them, how to get accurate information about them, how to persuade them to advertise in his newspaper. Yet he was a bit nervous five years ago, when he moved from selling ad space to dealers to working with them directly -- as president and CEO of Manheim Auctions Inc., a used-car auctioning service and a sister company to the "AJC." The job seemed like a radical departure, and he wondered how long it would take to learn his new business. But when he attended his first auction -- and he saw 1,500-plus dealers who turned up every week to buy cars -- Berry had a flash of insight that came directly from his newspaper background. "Someone," he said to himself, "could sell a lot of classified advertising here."

That "someone" turned out to be Manheim. Berry's observation led his company, the world's largest used-car auctioning service, to become the leading wholesale seller of used cars on the Net. In 1996, Manheim's effort to connect its customer base of about 80,000 dealers and manufacturers to each other resulted in only 62 cars sold. In 1999, the company's wholesale Web site moved more than $615 million worth of cars -- and predictions for 2000 are north of $1.5 billion.

Part of the success of Manheim's Web initiatives can be credited to easy-to-use technology and good educational programs, which Manheim built for used-car dealers. But two key ingredients behind its online success were imported directly from its position in the physical marketplace. One was its enduring relationships with dealers: Roughly 90% of all used-car dealers attend Manheim auctions. The other was its vast physical resources -- specifically, Manheim's 65 auction locations across North America.

Sure, doing business on the Web can mean a sharp break from the past, in terms of strategy or style. Often it requires an assault on existing channels of distribution. But sometimes it pays to be a 55-year-old company with a proud business tradition. And it's almost always better to work with folks who are already selling your products -- even if you have to teach them how to change -- than it is to provoke a backlash from them.

"Anyone can build a Web site to sell cars," says Rob Leathern, an analyst with Jupiter Communications Inc. in New York. "But the notion of a zero-gravity player in this market -- a pure dotcom with no physical infrastructure or preexisting relationships -- is naïve. Manheim already owns the sweet spot. It's got loyal customers as well as the infrastructure that's needed to store, ship, repair, and recondition used cars. That will be a difficult edge for others to replicate."

Berry puts it another way: "Our mission has always been to help used-car dealers succeed. Everything we do is focused on helping them win," he says. "A lot of dotcoms say, 'We're going to bypass dealers. Consumers don't like doing business with dealers.' We knew that wouldn't happen -- because used cars are sold one car at a time, and every used car is unique. We felt confident that if we built our online business on helping dealers succeed, we would win."