There are several internal candidates gunning for Google's top sales position since former Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora left in July, The Information's Amir Efrati reports.
Company vet Omid Kordestani stepped up in the meantime, but his role will likely be only temporary.
Here are five people that Efrati's sources highlighted as likely to get tagged for the sales exec position:
Philipp Schindler, Arora's right-hand man
Schindler is Google's VP of global sales and operations, and Efrati reports that he had been Arora's right-hand man.
He's been at Google nearly ten years, and runs the operations teams across all of Google's monetization products.
Before joining Google in 2005, Philipp was AOL Germany's SVP, in charge of its marketing and sales.
Margo Georgiadis, president of sales in the Americas
Georgiadis has an interesting history with Google: She joined back in 2009 as its VP of global sales operations, left to be Groupon's COO in 2011, and then came back to Google after a mere five months.
She's now Google's president for the Americas.
"I enjoyed working [at Groupon] and got a lot out of it," she told Crains in 2012. "I'm happy to be back at Google and for all the right reasons."
Matt Brittin, a rising star in sales
Brittin joined Google in 2007, and is one of Arora's European proteges: He runs sales and operations as Google's VP of northern and central Europe.
In the past, he's been responsible for defending how little corporate tax Google pays in Europe.
Before joining Google, he was commercial director at the U.K. publishing company Trinity Mirror.
Daniel Alegre, president of global partnerships
As Google's president of global partnerships, Alegre helps the company develop relationship with publishers to sell ads, according to Efrati.
He joined Google back in 2004, and headed up sales in both the Asia Pacific region and Latin America, and ran its worldwide mobile efforts before snagging his current position in 2012.
Lorraine Twohill, the "dark horse" candidate
Efrati's sources highlighted Twohill as a "dark horse" candidate. Twohill runs Google's marketing, and was just awarded an "SVP" title in June (there are only 10 people with the senior vice president rank total at Google).
Although she doesn't have sales experience, she's been with the company for 11 years, and could be a good candidate because she's extremely intelligent.
"[Larry Page] thinks smart people who have range can handle a lot," one of Efrati's sources said of Twohill.
They're all the conventional prospects, one former Googler told Business Insider.
However, the fact that none of these internal candidates got the position as soon as it opened up and that Page called in Kordestani, could mean that Google isn't completely sold on any option and could be looking for external people.