Salesforce or Veeva, Which One Do You Needa? 🤔
Helping Pharma Marketers Figure Out Which CRM They Actually Need.
Choosing the right CRM platform for a pharmaceutical organisation is a hot topic right now, yet few companies or consultants are able publish a clear conclusion or recommendation. Salesforce and Veeva dominate the conversation but it is not always obvious which solution truly fits a company’s needs or whether another approach might be smarter.
As content marketing experts, Brandcast Health does not claim to have all the answers about the features or benefits of either platform. But what is clear to us is that delivering content, building trust, and engaging healthcare professionals effectively depends on the ecosystem chosen, how well it is set up, and how accessible it is for marketers and field teams.
📢 To explore the choice and consequences in more detail, we thought we should ask the pharma marketing community directly.
Below is a collection of insights from in-house pharma experts and consultants who shared their views on Linked In, formatted into a Q&A style. These insights highlight the critical questions, practical considerations, and real-world experiences of pharma leaders, consultants, and marketers as they navigate the choice between Salesforce, Veeva, and other CRM options.
Q&A: Making Sense of Salesforce and Veeva
Is this a critical choice for pharma companies?
The platform itself is not necessarily the most critical factor. The real priority is defining the customer engagement model and long-term digital strategy. Once there is a clear vision for how engagement should look in the coming years, both Salesforce and Veeva can provide a strong foundation. The most important consideration is aligning the technology choice with strategic goals rather than focusing only on short-term needs.
What are the main differences between Salesforce and Veeva?
Veeva is a pharma-native platform designed specifically for the life sciences industry. It includes workflows for Approved Email, closed loop marketing, consent management, and compliance, making it closely aligned with healthcare professional realities. Salesforce, by contrast, offers scalability and flexibility, which can be advantageous for building broader digital ecosystems, such as patient apps, payer engagement tools, and multi-channel orchestration. The choice depends on whether the priority is traditional, pharma-specific workflows or ecosystem extensibility that mirrors innovations adopted by other industries.
Are there alternatives beyond Salesforce and Veeva?
Yes. For mid-sized or European pharma companies, large global platforms can be expensive and complex. Smaller specialised CRM providers or new-generation pharma cloud solutions can offer faster, more cost-efficient paths to omnichannel engagement. These alternatives may be better aligned with practical sales processes and compliance needs, and they can improve adoption by marketing and field teams alike. It’s worth taking your time to understand the broader options to avoid missing out on an effective and efficient platform. For smaller biotech companies, platforms such as HubSpot are easier to customise and can integrate with internal systems to automate tasks and content creation.
How important is execution once a platform is chosen?
Execution is critical. Investment in training, customisation, integration, and user adoption often matters more than the initial choice. Clean data, tightly integrated systems, and an intuitive user experience are essential. A well-implemented system that meets the needs of front-line users will deliver far more value than a perfect platform implemented poorly.
How should companies approach long-term CRM strategy?
The first step is to define clear objectives for field efficiency, compliance, and digital ecosystem development. Evaluate platforms based on current requirements and foreseeable future demands. Provide field teams with practical tools that are easy to use and aligned with healthcare professional engagement workflows. Consider technology as part of a broader engagement strategy rather than a standalone solution.
What role do AI, digital capabilities, and omnichannel strategy play?
CRM alone is not enough to deliver comprehensive omnichannel engagement. Both Veeva and Salesforce are developing AI-driven capabilities. Veeva’s Vault CRM integrates content management and regulatory workflows, while Salesforce leverages Data Cloud and HCP 360 to support marketing journeys, email automation, and landing pages. Is your priority more about asset management and distribution, or is it marketing automations and journeys? A successful engagement model requires a broader technology stack beyond CRM to provide scale, efficiency, and value for healthcare professionals.
What is the most important factor in choosing a CRM?
The most important factor is ensuring the chosen solution aligns with the organisation’s strategic vision, supports practical field workflows, and is implemented effectively. The choice is less about one platform being inherently better than the other and more about how well it is adopted, customised, and integrated within the broader tech stack. Organisations that focus on execution and long-term customer engagement strategy (not short-term wins or capability boasting) will achieve the greatest impact.
🔑 Key Takeaways:
1. Execution drives value
- Invest in training, customisation, and user adoption
- Ensure clean data, practical integrations, and a user-friendly interface
- Focus on making the CRM practical for field teams and marketers
2. Align CRM with strategy and workflows
- Define clear engagement objectives before choosing a platform
- Match platform capabilities to field efficiency, compliance, and digital ecosystem needs
- Consider organisation size and real-world workflows when evaluating alternatives
3. Integrate for omnichannel and data impact
- Connect CRM with marketing automation, analytics, and multi-channel tools
- Use first-party data to inform campaigns and measure impact
- Leverage AI capabilities where available to streamline workflows and insights
Final Thoughts:
Choosing a CRM in pharma is about strategy, not just the platform. Veeva excels with pharma-specific workflows and compliance, while Salesforce offers scale, flexibility, and broader ecosystem capabilities. Smaller or specialised platforms can also provide cost-efficient, practical solutions for mid-sized organisations.
The most important factor is execution: training, customisation, and user adoption determine whether a CRM delivers real value. The right system aligns with your engagement strategy, supports your teams, and integrates into a broader tech stack to drive scale, efficiency, and meaningful HCP engagement.
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