It's not what you say, it's how you say it, or is it?

A sales related meeting earlier where a review of the sales of the month was done with each of my company's branch offices in Japan through the beloved teleconference system. My favorite was the Sendai branch manager, responsible for the Tohoku region (basically northern Japan up to the Hokkaido island), his report went something like this:

Branch Manager: (Confidently) Compared to last year, our sales for this month was up by roughly 13% and we visited approximately 10% more customer than for the same period last year. In addition, we managed to open up 3 new accounts in the Akita prefecture and get several promising leads in the vicinity. According to our own estimations of sales for the month, we managed to achieve our objectives and are set to have a very good month and sales up to the year end. In addition, I also initiated some organizational changes in terms of sales area for my reps that I strongly believe will improve the situation. That is all, thank you for listening (closing with confidence).
Sales Manager: (friendly and positive)Thank you it sounds like you are working hard, could you just please repeat the budget achievement rate since that's the figure I need most now.
Branch Sales Manager: (silence...)
Sales Manager: (slightly confused) Hello? Are you there?
Branch Sales Manager: (after a few seconds of additional silence… in a weak voice) Yes?
Sales Manager: (mildly annoyed) What about your budget achievement rate for the month, I need those figures now!?
Branch Sales Manager: (again a few seconds of silence) … … … (in a weak voice) budget achievement? Oh, yes (clearing throat), unfortunately we only managed to hit 85%...

Obviously these 85% were quite below the branch average, but I have to give it to him, he almost got away with it, if only he could have kept up the confidence level...