The Interview

Kluster's Take

Theo spoke with Pavel Frolov, Vice President of Global Sales at Semrush. He talks thoroughly about data and leadership.

Pavel believes that it can be difficult to teach someone to sell. When hiring, he looks for people who have organic sales capabilities. Pavel started out working in sales, focussed on national markets. He started out selling speech technology, then moved to telecom. By age 24 he was managing international sales in different companies. Pavel has played a big part in Semrush’s success, when he started there were 8 people in his department. 

Pavel moved into management as he enjoys managing people and building processes. He is great at motivating, onboarding and educating people. He explains that great reps don’t always make good leaders.

Working for a SAS company, he understands the importance of growth. Pavel wants to know where growth is coming from, whether it is new growth or from expansion upgrades. He monitors how their traffic is growing. He investigates whether there are enough people for a particular region. Pavel is very open to sharing information with his team. He likes to show all the metrics, understanding progress is helpful for motivation.