Brief the tasks, not the topic. "Teach us Shopify" can't be quoted. A list of the ten jobs your team does each week, with the three that go wrong most often, can. Good trainers ask for that list and a look at the store before they price anything.
Ask for a session plan built from your store. The plan should use your settings, your apps and your real orders as examples. If the agenda would work unchanged for any merchant, you're paying for a course you could take free in Shopify Academy.
Count the seats before the first session. Basic and Starter come with no extra staff users; Grow allows 5, Advanced 15 and Plus as many as you need. Work out who will log in as whom, and give each trainee their own user with the right permissions where your plan allows it. Shared logins blur who did what.
Decide what the team keeps. Recordings, short written procedures and a checklist per role are what make training last beyond the call. Ask for them in the quote rather than as an afterthought.
Treat credentials as a filter, not proof. Shopify's Verified Skills badges come from paid, proctored assessments and last two years. They show platform knowledge — not whether someone can teach a nervous new hire. A paid trial hour tells you more.
Pick a freelancer or an agency on purpose. The 8 trainers listed on shopexperts in October 2026 are 5 freelancers and 3 agencies. Freelancers suit one-to-one work and small teams. An agency makes more sense when training sits inside a build or covers several departments.
Three things should end the conversation. Promises about sales or revenue, because training changes what people can do, not what the market does. A trainer who installs or pushes apps during sessions. And a large programme quoted before anyone has opened your admin.
