(the) most effective b2b lead generation methods (??)

When I read this headline of an article first published on MarketingProfs.com I clicked over right away. I do a lot of work with b2b companies and effective lead generation (which is not easy) is always an element of marketing that is on my mind. If they had cracked the most effective methods, I was keen to find out what they were.

Don’t you mean 3 most used methods?
Within the first paragraph it was stated that the three most effective methods were:

• events
• outbound marketing
• online marketing

I raised an eyebrow, this wasn’t news. This seemed, rather, like the top three answers to the question “What are your top lead generation activities?” I’m imagining the response to be “Events, outbound and online.” (response deliberately short as we use a lot of jargon and shorthand in marketing). For sure there are companies doing effective things with these methods – but these methods in and of themselves are not necessarily effective. The planning and execution of them matter a great deal.

Effective and established are two different things
It was the third chart in the article which confirmed my hunch.  “The top B2B marketing challenges”. Can you guess number 1? Getting enough leads. How about number 2? Improving lead quality. Wouldn’t an effective lead generation method solve those two challenges? It is a shame the article didn’t let us know what those were. The survey was produced by Insidesales.com

What is your most effective lead generation method? Is it effective because of the method or because of the planning, execution and implementation of it?