It's essential to have genuine empathy while dealing with stakeholders. This allows you to come across as sincere, genuinely interested in learning about what their challenges, needs, perspective is that is making them be perceived or appear as difficult. Once you create a rapport with them, they would open up their side of the story, it provides you a new set of insights to work with and solve their lack of support equation. Studying a stakeholder' influence and impact and knowledge of their perspective, past experience will allow you to effectively request, garner their support in enhancing chances of project success.