Your Arduino is not communicating properly with the program. Things to check:
- Proper USB connection
- Correct COM port selected. If you are in Windows you can check the device manager. Look under "Ports (COM & LPT)," you should see something like "USB Serial Port (COM3)." Make sure you have the correct port selected in the Arduino IDE under "Tools -> Serial Port."
- Correct board selected under "Tools -> Board."
- Did you try multiple times? Occasionally, for whatever reason, I get that error and the program won't upload. I just upload again and it will work.
Have you used this particular Arduino board before? I bought an Arduino on SparkFun that didn't come with the bootloader installed. It's possible that this is your problem, assuming all of your settings are correct. If you used the board successfully before then that is not the problem. SparkFun does tend to be a little sloppy about that anyway with their products, probably more so than the "Official" Arduino guys.