A company's percentage of total sales in a given market.

• A. Market share
• B. Market leader
• C. Market position
• D. Product life cycle

Answer: (A)

Market share measures how large one company’s slice of the market is relative to the whole. It’s the portion of total market sales that the company captures, usually expressed as a percentage. You find it by dividing the company’s sales by the total market sales and multiplying by 100. This directly answers the idea of “a company’s percentage of total sales in a given market,” because it shows exactly how much of the market the firm controls.

This metric is useful because a higher market share generally signals a stronger competitive position and potential for influence over pricing, distribution, and growth opportunities. It also helps track performance over time and benchmark against rivals.

The other terms describe different ideas: the market leader is simply the company with the largest market share, not the share itself; market position is about how the brand is viewed relative to competitors, not the exact percentage; and the product life cycle is about the stages a product goes through from launch to decline.